TECHNOLOGY/BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Laser beam shaping for improved microstructure and... Tender

Procurement Summary

Country: USA

Summary: TECHNOLOGY/BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Laser beam shaping for improved microstructure and defect control in laser-based metal additive manufacturing or welding processes

Deadline: 27 Sep 2025

Other Information

Notice Type: Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 125282860

Document Ref. No.: IL-13971

Financier: Self Financed

Purchaser Ownership: Public

Tender Value: Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

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Tender Details

Description

Opportunity:

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), operated by the Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), LLC under contract no. DE-AC52-07NA27344 (Contract 44) with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is offering the opportunity to enter into a collaboration to further develop and commercialize its laser beam shaping for improved microstructure and defect control in laser-based metal additive manufacturing or welding processes.



Background:

Parts fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM) typically have mechanical properties that differ from parts produced by conventional manufacturing. There may be microstructural differences such as the presence of elongated grains or high concentrations of dislocations in an AM part. Of the different metal AM methods, laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) presents particular challenges due to the relatively small-sized powders (typically 10 - 50 um) used and the interactions of the metal with the tightly focused laser. Common defects, such as incomplete melting, gas porosity, and high residual stresses, are difficult to avoid and present significant challenges to printing reliability.

These challenges often result in small windows of acceptable processing parameters that can give the optimal properties. Optimizing one property will often deteriorate another property, i.e. optimizing density can decrease microstructure uniformity or residual stress. Conversely, improving microstructure uniformity can decrease density.

A large contributor to these issues is that the typical LPBF laser beam profile used have a Gaussian shape; these beams are non-optimal for the laser AM process because of laser-material interactions during printing that are undesired such as keyholing (laser-vapor interactions), spatter and porosity (melt pool instabilities) and anisotropic mechanical properties (large thermal gradients). In metal AM using directed energy deposition or in laser-welding processes, th...
Active Contract Opportunity
Notice ID : IL-13971
Related Notice
Department/Ind. Agency : ENERGY, DEPARTMENT OF
Sub-tier : ENERGY, DEPARTMENT OF
Office: LLNS – DOE CONTRACTOR
General Information
Contract Opportunity Type: Special Notice (Original)
Original Published Date: Aug 27, 2025 01:08 pm PDT
Original Response Date: Sep 27, 2025 04:00 pm PDT
Inactive Policy: 15 days after response date
Original Inactive Date: Oct 12, 2025
Initiative:
Classification
Original Set Aside:
Product Service Code:
NAICS Code: 333248 - All Other Industrial Machinery Manufacturing

Place of Performance: Livermore, CA USA

Documents

 Tender Notice