Laser-based directed energy deposition (DED-LB) of advanced materials

Directed energy deposition (DED) has matured into an essential additive manufacturing (AM) branch. DED has been broadly implemented in the design and fabrication of novel materials. These include metals, ceramics, and composites. Successful DED operation requires a good understanding of many critical phenomena, including laser-material interactions, fundamentals of casting and solidification of alloys, welding metallurgy and joining interfaces, along with microstructure-mechanical properties relations. Also critical are powder flowability, heat transfer, and various machine-related parameters. Several review articles have been published in recent years on metal AM via powder bed fusion (PBF) and DED, focusing on either a specific material system, mapping the recent technologies for AM, or issues related to the deposition process or material properties. Yet, no recent review is dedicated to a comprehensive presentation of material systems, design, fabrication, challenges, and the relationship between microstructures and mechanical properties of various DED'ed material families. Since the DED-based approach is becoming popular to manufacture bimetallic and multi-material structures, repair high-value structures, and alloy design, this comprehensive review focuses on materials design via DED, including a survey of a variety of monolithic and multi-material compositions. Finally, the critical challenges and opportunities in this area are highlighted.