Patent ID: 7651658

Claim:
A process for making a refractory metal part comprising: (a) loading refractory powder metal particles into a hopper for feeding into a laser additive chamber, wherein the refractory metal particles are selected from the group consisting of tantalum, Re, W, Mo, W alloys, Mo alloys, Re alloys, niobium, tantalum alloys and niobium alloys. (b) loading a substrate into the laser additive chamber, (c) feeding the powder metal powders into the additive chamber onto successive points on the substrate in a linear trace, (d) melting the substrate and the powder with a laser beam and building up multiple coatings of a controlled microstructure, (e) tracing the substrate over a selected area with a combined deposition and melt beam and building up a coating of a controlled microstructure in multiple layers, and (f) building up a deposit from the coating and forming a refractory metal part and wherein the refractory metal part is a sputtering target or tube perform or furnace part preform.