Owing to the versatility without expanding the machine’s size, thin-wall has been widely used in high-value parts. The investigation of laser additive manufacturing (LAM), which has advantages such as high powder density, easy controllability, and excellent stability, on the fabrication of thin-wall has drawn much attention. In this paper, the research status of macroscopic and microstructural features of metal thin-wall fabricated by LAM has been reviewed. The deposition quality was mainly focused on the effect of process parameters and especially the matching of z-increment and single deposition height. Based on the grain size and growth of columnar, the characteristics of microstructures were analyzed. Considering the structural feature of thin-wall, the effect of grain size and phases on the hardness and distribution of hardness were discussed. The effect of grain size, phases and loading direction on the tensile properties were reviewed. The distribution and modification of thermal stress were presented.

As a very common type of laser additive manufacturing technology, laser material deposition (LMD) is widely used, having exceptional application advantages including surface enhancing, repairing damaged parts with high value-add, and building functionally graded material. At present, the continuous wave laser is a common laser mode used in the LMD process. The investigation of pulse shaping, which can add a degree of control over the thermal history, is limited. In this study, the effects of pulse shaping on the geometrical characteristics, microstructure, and microhardness were investigated through conducting single-track experiments with different laser shapes, including continuous, rectangular, ramp up, ramp down, and hybrid ramp. The results indicated that the clads created by continuous and ramp up laser shape presented the maximum and minimum dimensions of geometrical characteristics, respectively. The rectangular and hybrid ramp laser shape deposited the clads with similar dimensions. The continuous laser shape produced the clad with the coarsest microstructure and lowest hardness because of the lowest cooling rate. The smallest grain size and highest hardness presented in the clad were seen with the rectangular laser shape owing to the biggest cooling rate. The cooling rates in ramp up and ramp down were restrained by the gradual heating and gradual cooling, respectively.