SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Optonicus proposes development of the Wide-Area Laser Additive Manufacturing in Metals with Adaptive Beam Shaping (WALAM-ABS) laser additive manufacturing (LAM) system. The WALAM-ABS metal additive manufacturing system will solve long-standing drawbacks imposed by current single-point selective laser melting LAM technology through the use of wide-area processing based on proprietary multi-beam fiber array laser systems. The proposed Phase II WALAM system will adapt high-power coherent fiber-array and adaptive beam control technologies originally developed for DoD directed energy applications. Benefits include a revolutionary 10-fold build rate increase with a 2-3-fold improvement in 3D printing spatial resolution with real time control of thermal gradients and wide area in-situ sensing of the power bed material and solidification track.
