Traditional dental restorations are produced by the porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM) process, in which a dental restoration is cast from a metallic alloy and then covered with dental porcelains by several firing processes, which is both labor intensive and expensive. In this paper, the feasibility of dental restorations is investigated using a multi-materials laser densification
(MMLD) process. To evaluate the effectiveness of the MMLD process, nickel powders and commercial dental porcelain powders are laser densified using YAG and CO2 lasers respectively. Effects of processing parameters, e.g. laser scanning rate and target temperature, are evaluated and the microstructure of processed nickel and porcelain materials are characterized for the
optimization of laser densification. Results indicate that densities of laser processed nickel and dental porcelain are strongly dependent of processing parameters. Fully dense layers are achievable with proper processing conditions.Mechanical Engineerin
