Study on the key technologies of laminated object manufacturing for the metal parts

To address problems associated with the laminated object manufacturing (LOM) of using sheet metal as modeling materials, a new approach, which cuts the sheet metals by a new LOM process and connects them by diffusion welding technology, is put forwarded in this paper. The theoretical manufacturing error is compared with the current LOM process and the new LOM process. A slicing algorithm for new LOM process was deduced. The following conclusions were drawn from experiments: shrinkage in the stack direction was small, atom diffusion between two joint occurred clearly and new grains formed meanwhile, shearing strength of welding zone was above 100 MPa , and micro hardness of the welding zone was almost the same as matrix’s. From the fabricated sample part, it was revealed that the new LOM process with diffusion welding could be one of the effective methods for the laminated object manufacturing of metal parts.