Application of a Diagnostic Tool in Laser Aided Manufacturing Processes

Lasers play a vital role in producing parts with high dimensional accuracy, strength and quality in today's rapid prototyping industry. In the process of Laser Metal Deposition, many problems are encountered where the part quality does not meet the required standards. This could be due to the nonconformity of control parameters or unnecessary interactions between the control factors. This paper discusses the implementation of Dr. Genichi Taguchi’s optimization techniques using Design of Experiments (DOE) where a series of fractional factorial experiments are performed on the laser deposition process. The results from these experiments are evaluated with respect to the rate of deposition alongside the part quality and the optimized level setting of control parameters are determined efficiently. This tool can be used to detect and diagnose flaws and discrepancies in the Laser Metal Deposition process and optimize it accordingly.