Development of a Hybrid Manufacturing Process for Precision Metal Parts

This paper summarizes the research and development of a hybrid manufacturing process to produce fully dense metal parts with CNC-level precision. High performance metals, such as titanium alloys, nickel superalloys, tool steels, stainless steels, etc. can benefit from this process. Coupling the additive and the subtractive processes into a multi-axis workstation, the hybrid process, can produce and repair metal parts with accuracy. The surface quality of the final product is similar to the industrial milling capability. To achieve such a system, issues of the metal deposition process and the automated process planning of the hybrid manufacturing process will be discussed.Mechanical Engineerin