Automatic monitoring and control of Laser Metal Deposition Process

Abstract: Laser metal deposition is an additive manufacturing technique that enables the manufacturing or repair of high-quality metal parts by building fine layers one at a time. To get a stable process with a low number of flaws and irregularities the process needs a fully operational and functioning control system. At PTC in Trollhättan, a production research facility that is a department of University West, several experiments have previously been conducted with an LMD machine.  The main objective of this thesis is to deliver input from available methods for automatic control and monitoring of the LMD process. The available methods are explained in the report and previous experiments that have been conducted have been documented in this thesis. Another objective of the thesis is to develop a prototype for monitoring and control of the process. Previous work has mainly used a visual-based control system that has used CMOS-, CCD-, or an infrared camera. Pyrometers and structured light scanning have also been used. Non-optical methods such as acoustical sensors and thermocouples have also been used for monitoring and control.  With the gathered information about the available control methods, a prototype has been developed to automatically control the LMD machine located at PTC. The control uses a CMOS camera to gather live imaging from the machine in order to adjust machine parameters, in real-time, to automatically control the process. The different parameters have a strong correlation to the final machine output and are also explained in the thesis.  The prototype and the gathering of data from the process have been made using Labview as an image-processing software. An evaluation of the developed prototype has been made and the different control methods have been discussed. The developed prototype measures the melt pool by using an algorithm that counts the number of pixels in the melt pool. However, further research needs to be made to determine if the measured width correlates with the actual width of the cladded string.