Directed Energy Deposition (DED) Process: State of the Art

TLDR

Metal additive manufacturing, including powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition (DED), and sheet lamination, offers flexible fabrication of freeform metallic parts directly from CAD data, enabling complex shapes on varied substrates and heterogeneous material build‑ups, and has attracted growing research interest. This review surveys recent research trends and applications of DED processes. It discusses the underlying principles, key technologies, and state‑of‑the‑art developments in DED process and system design, deposition‑condition optimization, and application strategies. The review identifies future research challenges and opportunities for advancing DED technology.

Abstract

Abstract Metal additive manufacturing technologies, such as powder bed fusion process, directed energy deposition (DED) process, sheet lamination process, etc., are one of promising flexible manufacturing technologies due to direct fabrication characteristics of a metallic freeform with a three-dimensional shape from computer aided design data. DED processes can create an arbitrary shape on even and uneven substrates through line-by-line deposition of a metallic material. Theses DED processes can easily fabricate a heterogeneous material with desired properties and characteristics via successive and simultaneous depositions of different materials. In addition, a hybrid process combining DED with different manufacturing processes can be conveniently developed. Hence, researches on the DED processes have been steadily increased in recent years. This paper reviewed recent research trends of DED processes and their applications. Principles, key technologies and the state-of-the art related to the development of process and system, the optimization of deposition conditions and the application of DED process were discussed. Finally, future research issues and opportunities of the DED process were identified.