[AT] repairing machined tractor parts

[James Peck]

James AT List Member (jamesgpeck at hotmail.com); Since we are talking about building up worn steel or iron parts with powdered metal, will the laser fuse powdered stainless to either? 

Steve Offiler AT List member Mechanical Engineer (soffiler at gmail.com); The short answer here is "any metal that can be made into an extremely fine powder".  Steel and iron present a real challenge as the extremely small particles want to oxide very quickly.  Not sure how they're getting this under control (suspect alloys and/or inert gas environments) but 3D folks are claiming steel capabilities.

Carl Szabelski AT list member and tank knowledge resource (szabelski at wildblue.net); Using 3D printing for metal parts consists of laying down a film of metal powder that is fused together by laser. You just keep applying layers of the metal powder to build up the part. The laser only fuses the powder were the CAD model tells it to.  Although the process it similar the 3D printing of plastic parts, there no plastic involved. Not 100% sure which metals they can do that way, but I believe titanium, aluminum, steel, bronze, (and I also believe maybe iron), parts can be made.