4. Economic approach and outlook

The subject of a great deal of laboratory work, industrial applications for surface treatments are progressing only very slowly. The investment required is undoubtedly the main obstacle. A system comprising: the source, optical devices for transporting and shaping the beam, the support table, computerized movement systems (for the beam, the part or both, coordinated using robots, gantries, etc.), associated systems (powder, wire, strip, etc. feeders, or surface protection systems) represent, depending on the type of source, investments of several hundred kiloeuros (typically 450 to 950 kE). The most expensive are systems using CO ₂ lasers, the least expensive are systems based on diode lasers. The former are perfectly reliable, while the latter are in the process of becoming so. When projected, a laser device can deposit around 2 kg of material...