The Applications of Laser Processing and Additive Manufacturing

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, laser-based materials processing has received extensive interest in manufacturing industries due to its high efficiency, great flexibility and high productivity, with applications such as laser welding, cutting, drilling, forming, cladding, ablation, texturing and polishing for a wide range of materials (including metals, ceramics, polymers and natural materials). A large number of applications in laser processing are related to surface engineering which aims to achieve superior properties by either adding a thin coating of other materials, or partially removing or modifying the characteristics of the material surface. Recently, laser-based additive manufacturing (e.g. laser powder bed fusion and laser powder/wire direct deposition) has offered significant new opportunities in producing high-quality functional parts without geometric restrictions. It is now possible to directly manufacture complex components with the desired properties built in.

This Special Issue is devoted to publishing original research and high-quality review articles relevant to recent advances in laser-based processing and additive manufacturing. Potential topics for this Special Issue will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Recent developments in laser processing related to surface engineering, such as cladding, ablation, texturing, polishing etc.
• Novel laser processing technologies to improve the properties of the material surface.
• Fundamental studies of laser–materials interaction.
• Laser additive manufacturing of novel materials or functionally graded materials.

Dr. Yingtao Tian
Dr. Samuel Tammas-Williams
Prof. Dr. Peilei Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.