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Control of melt pool temperature and deposition height during direct metal deposition process

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Abstract

This paper presents a hybrid control system that is able to improve dimensional accuracy of geometrically complex parts manufactured by direct metal deposition process. The melt pool height is monitored by three high-speed charged couple device cameras in a triangulation setup. The melt pool temperature is monitored by a dual-color pyrometer. A two-input single-output hybrid control system including a master height controller and a slave temperature controller is used to control both height growth and melt pool temperature at each deposition layer. The height controller is a rule-based controller and the temperature controller uses a generalized predictive control algorithm with input constraints. When the melt pool height is above a prescribed layer thickness, the master height controller blocks control actions from the temperature controller and decreases laser power to avoid over-building. When the melt pool height is below the prescribed layer thickness, the temperature controller bypasses the height controller and dynamically adjusts laser power to control the melt pool temperature. This hybrid controller is able to achieve stable layer growth by avoiding both over-building and under-building through heat input control. A complex 3-D turbine blade with improved geometrical accuracy is demonstrated using the hybrid control system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Laser Aided Intelligent Manufacturing, University of Michigan, 2350 Hayward St., Room 2040 GGB, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Lijun Song & Jyoti Mazumder

  2. The POM Group Inc, 2350 Pontiac Road, Auburn Hills, MI, 48326, USA

    Vijayavel Bagavath-Singh, Bhaskar Dutta & Jyoti Mazumder

Authors
  1. Lijun Song
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  2. Vijayavel Bagavath-Singh
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  3. Bhaskar Dutta
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  4. Jyoti Mazumder
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Correspondence to Lijun Song.

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Song, L., Bagavath-Singh, V., Dutta, B. et al. Control of melt pool temperature and deposition height during direct metal deposition process. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 58, 247–256 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-011-3395-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-011-3395-2

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