It is commonly known that most of the problems of the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process are coming from heat. I was wondering if it is possible to add a closed-loop control system to control the amount of heat during the melting process. Is there any machine provider that can support that? I know that it is a demanding R&D topic that many researchers are looking for. I just would like to know if any of the Additive Manufacturing (AM) experts will agree with me that this might be a solution for some of the main issues in AM. Thanks and I am looking forward to discussing this research issue.
Image processing and/or photo-voltaic cell may be used to analyze the energy density of laser beam in SLM. but in case of in-process feedback system we need to think more about it.
BTW, E=P/(v*h*t) where P is laser power (W), v is scan speed (mm/s), h is hatch spacing (mm) and t is layer thickness (mm) (Thijs et al. 2010). This relation is used to know the energy density of laser in SLS.
I do not know if it is an answer to your question or not, but it is easy to control the scanning speed (for specific laser power or energy) and consequently controls the amount of heat entering the laser powder. I did that during my Master degree, but it was laser cutting not SLM.
@Ankit Nayak,
Thank you for your reply. Yes, I agree. Controlling the heat energy density in-process is a tricky question. I think it needs a lot of research to figure out and investigate all the problems that coming from the heat source. Then, proposing how these problems can be solved by a closed loop control system.
The machine providers should have look into that, should they?
@Mohamed Shalaby
Thank you for the response. Is it easy to control the laser speed as a function of time? I mean if I give you the scanning speed of the laser as a function of time, can you apply that in the control system of the laser head to move according to that function?
Hello Mostafa, We did temperature measurements during SLS/M of reaction capable powdered compositions - 10.1007/s10973-007-8353-8. Also we controled electromotive force measurements during SLS/M of reaction capable powdered compositions - 10.1039/b819810a.
What about a temperature thermal camera or sometimes it's called thermal gun, then using the output data in a function to control either the speed or the power of the laser?
https://slm-solutions.com/sites/default/files/downloads/131en171015-01-002-slm125_web.pdf
https://slm-solutions.com/sites/default/files/downloads/w_slm125_en.pdf
http://hniforum.no/cmsAdmin/uploads/slm-presentasjon-brattv-g.pdf
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/142/1/012071/pdf
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Analytical Chemistry
- Extraction