Advanced manufacturing—A transformative enabling capability for fusion

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) can create novel and complex engineered material structures. Features such as controlled porosity, micro-fibers and/or nano-particles, transitions in materials and integral robust coatings can be important in developing solutions for fusion subcomponents. A realistic understanding of this capability would be particularly valuable in identifying development paths. Major concerns for using AM processes with lasers or electron beams that melt powder to make refractory parts are the power required and residual stresses arising in fabrication. A related issue is the required combination of lasers or e-beams to continue heating of deposited material (to reduce stresses) and to deposit new material at a reasonable built rate while providing adequate surface finish and resolution for meso-scale features. Some Direct Write processes that can make suitable preforms and be cured to an acceptable density may offer another approach for PFCs.