Real-Time Geometry Assessment Using Laser Line Scanner During Laser Powder Directed Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing of SS316L Component with Sharp Feature

Abstract

Directed energy deposition (DED) is a major metal additive manufacturing (AM) technology that is increasingly used in many industries due to its ability to manufacture complex components of arbitrary shapes and sizes. However, a lack of timely geometry assessment and the consequent geometry control hinders the development of DED towards zero defect manufacturing. In this study, a real-time geometry assessment methodology is developed for laser pow-der directed energy deposition (LP-DED). A geometry assessment system is developed using a laser line scanner capable of inspecting the melt pool area, the just solidified area, as well as layer-wise inspection. An image processing method with an encoder-decoder based profile completion network was developed to obtain accurate track profile in images from real-time inspection. Experiments have been conducted to validate the proposed methodology by depositing multi-layer X-shape objects