For some materials and applications, it is advantageous to use a wire instead of powder additives for laser metal deposition (LMD). By utilizing a wire as an additive material, major disadvantages of powder-based LMD processes can be eliminated. Contamination of the process cell with metal powder, significant material losses during the process, health and safety issues, and insufficient powder quality are just some of the problems avoided by this approach. A continuous ring-shaped laser beam surrounding the wire is one of the distinguishing features of the presented LMD processing head. The laser beam and wire are arranged coaxially to each other, with the wire being fed through the inside of the hollow, ring-shaped laser beam. The coaxial supply of inert gas avoids exposure of the melt pool to atmospheric oxygen. Through this design, the wire LMD process is independent of the feed direction. A very high degree of material utilization paired with the aforementioned advantages promises the potential for efficient and precise buildup of two- and three-dimensional geometries. The reduced mass of the head through advanced design makes highly dynamic LMD processes feasible. By allowing the use of thin additive wires, even intricate geometries can be built up in near-net-shape. To evaluate the potential of this novel approach for wire-based laser material deposition, a prototype processing head was designed, built, and tested. First, results and measurements regarding beam shaping, process behavior, and resulting deposits are shown and discussed. Material samples from both Inconel 718 and Titanium Ti-6Al-4V were built and evaluated metallographically. An outlook toward future research and possible applications is given.
Additive manufacturing technologies such as laser material deposition (LMD) enable manufacturers to economically produce complex and individualized products. However, improved productivity and more economic use of LMD are necessary to benefit from these advantages in a wider range of applications. Through the use of industrial robots in LMD applications, large workspaces and geometric flexibility can be achieved at low cost. Possible effects of reduced path accuracies compared to conventional machines for LMD are not currently quantified. Initial studies suggest effects of path deviations on the component geometry. In this paper, an initial approach to investigate the influence of robot path deviations on the LMD component geometry is introduced. A novel approach toward correlation between path deviations of the robot and resulting surface waviness of the component is presented. The correlation is investigated on two different industrial robots with a powder-based LMD process. Tool center point (TCP) paths of the industrial robots are measured by means of a laser tracker. Robot TCP paths and resulting specimen surface topography are geometrically correlated and compared. The magnitude of the correlation is quantified by the calculation of the Pearson coefficient and a linear approximation of the correlation is made. In addition, the resulting correlation is checked by model calculations regarding the weld path formation as a function of the real tool paths with the aim of quantifying to what extent the waviness of the tool path is reflected in the waviness of the weld track.
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