The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 26, 2010
Filed:
Jan. 22, 2003
Paul R. Aimone, Bridgewater, MA (US);
Prabhat Kumar, Framingham, MA (US);
Peter R. Jepson, Newbury, MA (US);
Paul R. Aimone, Bridgewater, MA (US);
Prabhat Kumar, Framingham, MA (US);
Peter R. Jepson, Newbury, MA (US);
H.C. Starck Inc., Newton, MA (US);
Abstract
A process to chemically refine and consolidate tantalum, niobium and their alloys to a fabricated product of net shape or near-net shape with higher throughput, more consistency, and lower manufacturing costs compared to prior art routes or rejuvenate damaged and deteriorated refractory metal parts. Powder metal is loaded into hoppers to be fed into laser forming/melting equipment. A suitable substrate is loaded into a laser forming/melting chamber onto which the powder will be deposited and consolidated in a point-scan process. As the powder is fed onto successive points of the surface of the substrate in linear traces, the laser is used to heat and partially melt the substrate and completely melt the powder. A combined deposition and melt beam traces the substrate surface repeatedly over a selected area to build up a dense coating of controlled microstructure in multiple layers. A fully dense deposit is built up that becomes the desired shape.