Green laser sources are advantageous in the processing of copper due to the increase of absorptivity compared with more commonly available infrared lasers. Laser metal deposition of copper with a green laser onto various substrate metals namely copper, aluminium, steel and titanium alloy was carried out and observed through high-speed imaging. The effects of process parameters such as laser power, cladding speed and powder feed rate, and material attributes such as absorptivity, surface conditions and thermal conductivity are tied together to explain the size and geometry of the melt pool as well as the fraction of the power used for melting material. The copper substrate has the smallest melt pool with a high angle, followed by aluminium, steel and titanium alloy. The incorporation times for powder grains in the melt pools vary based on the substrate materials. Its dependency on material properties, including surface tension forces, melting temperatures and material density, is discussed. Oxide skins present on melt pools can affect powder incorporation, most significantly on the aluminium substrate. The lower limits of the fraction of power irradiated on the surface used purely for melting were calculated to be 0.73%, 2.94%, 5.95% and 9.78% for the copper, aluminium, steel and titanium alloy substrates, respectively, showing a strong dependence on thermal conductivity of the substrate material. For a copper wall built, the fraction was 2.66%, much higher than a single clad on a copper substrate, due to reduced workpiece heating. The results of this paper can be transferred to other metals with low absorptivity such as gold.

So far, copper has been difficult to process via laser powder bed fusion due to low absorption with the frequently used laser systems in the infrared wavelength range. However, green laser systems have emerged recently and offer new opportunities in processing highly reflective materials like pure copper through higher absorptivity. In this study, pure copper powders from two suppliers were tested using the same machine parameter sets to investigate the influence of the powder properties on the material properties such as density, microstructure, and electrical conductivity. Samples of different wall thicknesses were investigated with the eddy-current method to analyze the influence of the sample thickness and surface quality on the measured electrical conductivity. The mechanical properties in three building directions were investigated and the geometrical accuracy of selected geometrical features was analyzed using a benchmark geometry. It could be shown that the generated parts have a relative density of above 99.95% and an electrical conductivity as high as 100% International Annealed Copper Standard (IACS) for both powders could be achieved. Furthermore, the negative influence of a rough surface on the measured eddy-current method was confirmed.

The growing number of commercially available machines for laser deposition welding show the growing acceptance and importance of this technology for industrial applications. Their increasing usage in research and production requires process stability and user-friendly handling. A commercially available DMG MORI LT 65 3D hybrid machine used in combination with a CCD-based coaxial temperature measurement system was utilized in this work to investigate what information relating to the intensity distribution of melt pool surfaces could be appropriate to draw conclusions about process conditions. In this study it is shown how the minimal required specific energy for a stable process can be determined, and it is indicated that the evolution of a plasma plume depends on thermal energy within the base material. An estimated melt pool area—calculated by the number of pixels (NOP) with intensities larger than a fixed, predefined threshold—builds the main measure in analysing images from the process camera. The melt pool area and its temporal variance can also serve as an indicator for an increased working distance.

Hybrid joints consisting of metals and fiber-reinforced polymer composites exhibit highly desirable properties for many lightweight design applications. This study investigates the potential of additively manufactured surface structures for enhancing the bond strength of such joints in comparison to face milled and laser structured surfaces. Titanium samples with different surface structures (as-built surface, groove-, and pin-shaped structures) were manufactured via electron beam melting and joined to carbon fiber-reinforced polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) via adhesive bonding and thermal direct joining, respectively. Bond strength was evaluated by tensile shear testing. Samples were exposed to salt spray testing for 1000 h for studying bond stability under harsh environmental conditions. The initial tensile shear strengths of the additively manufactured samples were competitive to or in some cases even exceeded the values achieved with laser surface structuring for both investigated joining methods. The most promising results were found for pin-shaped surface structures. However, the hybrid joints with additively manufactured structures tended to be more susceptible to degradation during salt spray exposure. It is concluded that additively manufactured structures can be a viable alternative to laser surface structuring for both adhesive bonding and thermal direct joining of metal-polymer hybrid joints, thus opening up new potentials in lightweight design.

Continuous developments in additive manufacturing (AM) technology are opening up opportunities in novel machining, and improving design alternatives for modern particle accelerator components. One of the most critical, complex, and delicate accelerator elements to manufacture and assemble is the radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linear accelerator, which is used as an injector for all large modern proton and ion accelerator systems. For this reason, the RFQ has been selected by a wide European collaboration participating in the AM developments of the I.FAST (Innovation Fostering in Accelerator Science and Technology) Horizon 2020 project. The RFQ is as an excellent candidate to show how sophisticated pure copper accelerator components can be manufactured by AM and how their functionalities can be boosted by this evolving technology. To show the feasibility of the AM process, a prototype RFQ section has been designed, corresponding to one-quarter of a 750 MHz 4-vane RFQ, which was optimised for production with state-of-the-art laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) technology, and then manufactured in pure copper. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first RFQ section manufactured in the world by AM. Subsequently, geometrical precision and surface roughness of the prototype were measured. The results obtained are encouraging and confirm the feasibility of AM manufactured high-tech accelerator components. It has been also confirmed that the RFQ geometry, particularly the critical electrode modulation and the complex cooling channels, can be successfully realised thanks to the opportunities provided by the AM technology. Further prototypes will aim to improve surface roughness and to test vacuum properties. In parallel, laboratory measurements will start to test and improve the voltage holding properties of AM manufactured electrode samples.