2. Powder bed melting

A layer of powder of controlled thickness (also known as a "powder bed") is deposited on a printing plate. An energy beam melts or locally sinter the powder bed. A new layer of locally melted or sintered powder is then deposited on this powder bed. The operation is repeated until the part is finished (figure 2 ). At the end of printing, the part of interest is surrounded by unbonded powder. The unbonded powder is then removed from the part to perform post-processing operations such as de-powdering, and finishing operations such as tribo-finishing.