Prediction and verification of the single cladding layer thickness for laser solid forming

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Beijing Key Lab of Precision/Ultra-precision Manufacturing Equipments and Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

^* hanfuzhu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract

In order to accurately measure the powder effective utilization rate and to predict the single cladding layer thickness in laser solid forming process, a new method to measure powder distribution density is presented in this paper. Using this method, the powder material entering molten pool was collected by a copper tube with the same size as laser spot and its mass was measured to accurately calculate powder effective utilization rate in the laser solid forming process. And then, the single cladding layer thickness were calculated according to the conservation law of powder material mass before and after forming, and the correctness of calculating results was verified via a series of single track experiments. The results show that the theoretical calculation results of single cladding layer thickness are well coincident with the experimental results, and it proves that the measurement method of powder distribution density is accurate and reliable. In addition, laser power has a great influence on the geometry size of single cladding layer. Therefore, the influence of laser power on the geometry size of single cladding layer should be taken into account when establishing the prediction model of single cladding layer thickness.