Application of Digital Twins to Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing Process Control

Abstract

Abstract Digital twins for additive manufacturing (AM) have drawn much research attention recently, thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Machine learning takes the process and measurement data from the manufacturing process to build data-driven models instead of physics-based descriptive models. The latter are usually hard to obtain for complex AM processes such as laser powder bed fusion. This study proposed a digital twin framework for the laser powder bed fusion AM process control and optimization. The framework is created based on the recently developed advanced point-wise scan control method. It consists of four components: digital twin of process design, digital twin of process control, digital twin of process monitoring, and digital twin of printed part. Their construction is detailed, and potential applications are demonstrated/discussed.