Applications in thermal and kinetic spraying increasingly aim for coating of parts with complex geometries. So far, respective robot programming for the required path during deposition is usually adjusted individually in time-consuming procedures. Thus, it is essential to develop methods that allow a fast adaptation to part geometries and production conditions as well as possible quality control. To tackle these problems, this work addresses novel strategies for robot programming and post-spray analyses. The design of the method and workflow follows routes of smart manufacturing and should enable fast and accurate implementation into spray procedures. Here, the developed application can handle complex parts of arbitrary geometry in the form of CAD files. Supported features include (i) cutting the objects according to the object boundary, (ii) creating self-intersecting curves, (iii) generating a set of index-sequence-based spatial discrete points and (iv) reordering the discrete points to generate adaptive paths. Robot offline programming allows for process simulation, analysis and optimization of the robot kinematics. By optical scanning profilometry, the layer-by-layer deposit build-up could be monitored for quality control, as well as for the determination of the final overall coating thickness. The entire procedure was tested by cold spraying onto a complex workpiece, validating the capability of the proposed strategy. Based on the universal layout of the applied methods, the strategies can also be applied for thermal spraying in general, considering individual boundary conditions. With respect to cold spraying, the implementation framework of this study provides a good basis for part repair and additive manufacturing.
Cold Spray is a solid-state Additive Manufacturing process of 3D near-net-shape parts which requires the implementation of a good spraying strategy and the choice of the right operating parameters. This paper is the result of empirical studies on the determination of the optimal processing conditions (spraying and kinematics) for the Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing (CSAM) of pure aluminum powder using a stable layers building strategy. Vertical 3D deposits (thick walls) with a height and thickness of 13-100 mm and 5-11 mm, respectively, were obtained through a series of tests that consider an effect of some kinematic parameters. The visual analysis of the deposits shows that the nozzle traverse speed as well as middle/edge pass number ratio constitute the two most influential parameters on the final shape of the deposits (flatness and straightness). All these results prove the potential of the Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing (CSAM) process as fast 3D additive method using micron sized powders, and particularly for Al powder.
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