A powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process that uses an array of high-powered pulse laser diodes to expose the entire top layer. A combination of a blue light LCD projector and customized laser modulator creates a 2D pattern that selectively lowers the energy of the projected laser light where melting is not wanted for that layer. The build plate then lowers, a new layer of powder is smooth across the top, and the process is repeated.
This method is much faster than laser powder bed fusion because the entire build surface is exposed at one time, rather than using a raster pattern.
This approach is similar to area printing but dims instead of deflects the laser light in non-printing regions. It can also project over a larger area.
Abbreviated as DiAM.
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