State-of-the-Art in Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Metals

Dear Colleagues,

As a powder bed based additive manufacturing (AM) process, laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), has been dramatically accepted in aerospace, consumer products, healthcare, energy, automotive, marine and other industries, due to its unique capacity to produce precise, complex and functionalized parts and versatility with several materials, mainly metals. Like many other growing technologies, further improvements in productivity, quality control and repeatability are required to enable maturalization and wider application of LPBF processed metals. From technical point of views, the fundamental and technological challenges in various aspects of the LPBF process need to be tackled by researchers in academias and industries, including the complex thermophysical phenomena, materials development, microstructure/defect control and evaluation, process design and numerical simulation, post processing and surface treatment, qualification and certification, etc.

This special issue seeks to collect papers and provide state-of-the-art knowledge on new findings or developments in LPBF of metals including steels, titanium, alluminium, nickel, copper, high entropy and other alloys. Special attention is addressed to the scientific and technological progress of basic principles of the LPBF process, feedstock materials, process development/quality control, post-treatment, performance assessment and application evaluation. New insights into the microstructure, characterization, modelling/simulation, processing and properties (e.g. mechanical, corrosion, thermal) of LPBFed metals and their relations are also welcomed.

Dr. Qi Chao
Dr. Xinliang Xie
Dr. Ke Wang
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. Metals 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.