Additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging customized three-dimensional (3D) functional product fabrication technology. It provides a higher degree of design freedom, reduces manufacturing steps, cost and production cycles. However, existing metallic component 3D printing techniques are mainly for the manufacture of single material components. With the increasing commercial applications of AM technologies, the need for 3D printing of more than one type of dissimilar materials in a single component increases. Therefore, investigations on multi-material AM (MMAM) emerge over the past decade. Lasers are currently widely used for the AM of metallic components where high temperatures are involved. Here we report the progress and trend in laser-based macro- and micro-scale AM of multiple metallic components. The methods covered in this paper include laser powder bed fusion, laser powder directed energy deposition, and laser-induced forward transfer for MMAM applications. The principles and process/material characteristics are described. Potential applications and challenges are discussed. Finally, future research directions and prospects are proposed.

增材制造（AM）是一种新兴的定制化三维（3D）功能产品制造技术。它提供了更高的设计自由度，减少了制造步骤，成本和生产周期。但是，现有的金属组件3D打印技术主要用于制造单一材料组件。随着AM技术在商业上的日益普及，在单个组件中对3种以上类型的异种材料进行3D打印的需求也在增加。因此，在过去的十年中出现了对多材料增材制造（MMAM）的研究。激光目前广泛用于涉及高温的金属部件的增材制造。在这里，我们报告了多种金属部件的基于激光的宏观和微观AM的进展和趋势。本文涵盖的方法包括用于MMAM应用的激光粉末床融合，激光粉末定向能量沉积和激光诱导的正向转移。描述了原理和过程/材料特性。讨论了潜在的应用和挑战。最后，提出了今后的研究方向和展望。