Process Development and Material Properties of Gears Manufactured by Laser Metal Deposition

摘要

This paper deals with the development of the laser metal deposition (LMD) process for the fastproduction of prototype gears for automotive applications. LMD on a conventional manufactured shafthas been applied for the automatic deposition of gear teeth with a single or locally varying materialcomposition. Different powder feedstocks have been evaluated. The gears have been analyzed formicrostructure, hardness and dynamic mechanical properties. High-quality deposits with occasionallya spherical gas inclusion have been produced at optimal process parameters. Bending fatigue testsand pitting fatigue tests on the LMD gears have been performed. It is proven that LMD enables toproduce high-strength functional components while reducing the lead time considerably for smallseries production and prototypes.