3. Material deposition under concentrated energy

The principle is to locally project material under a flow of energy in order to reach a complete or partial state of fusion before contact with the support of interest. This support may be a printing plate or a functional mechanical part. The next steps involve spraying molten material on top of the solidified material already deposited, thus building up the desired part or shape in a succession of layers (figure 4 ). The material used can be in powder or wire form. The energy source for fusion can be a laser beam, electron beam or arc plasma. Separation from the printing plate is usually achieved by sawing, followed by post-processing (e.g. heat...