Process Modeling, Monitoring and Control of Laser Metal Forming 235

Abstract

Laser Metal Forming (LMF) process is one of the prominent Rapid Prototyping (RP) process that can be used to develop functional and fully dense metal parts. This paper addresses process modeling, monitoring and control of a laser metal forming system currently under development at Laser Aided Manufacturing Processes (LAMP) laboratory at University of Missouri–Rolla. This LMF system is based on a 2.5kW Nd:YAG laser as energy source and integrates five axis metal deposition and five axis machining. The current paper is aimed at characterization of effects of operating parameters such as traverse speed, mass flow-rate and laser power on the LMF process. A low cost monitoring system is being developed using off the shelf sensors like infrared temperature sensor, near infrared CCD camera and laser displacement sensor to measure the process index parameters. A closed loop control structure has been simulated for online control of the LMF process.