Control of the Clad Height in Laser Powder Deposition Process Using a PID Controller

Abstract

Laser Powder Deposition (LPD) process is an advanced material processing technique which has many applications. Despite this fact, reliable and accurate control schemes have not yet fully developed for the process. In this paper, the problem of controlling the clad height in the LPD process is studied. Due to a faster response of the process to change in scanning velocity over the laser power, the scanning velocity is selected as the input control variable. Since the governing equations of the LPD process are complex for designing a controller, an identified nonlinear dynamic model is used. The model is a Hammerstein model with a linear dynamic and a nonlinear memoryless block. The model parameters are identified offline using experimental data. The controller has a proportional-integral-derivation (PID) architecture. The controller was implemented on the real plant to asses its performance in the fabrication of several metallic parts composed of stainless steel.