A Preliminary Study Based On Rapid Manufacturing Technology For Laser Cladding

Laser Cladding Rapid Manufacturing (LCRM) is a new rapid shaping technology, which is the integration of laser cladding theory and rapid shaping technology. It uses laser beam to melt metallic powder fed by co-axial nozzle layer by layer on a substrate, then a solid and functional component is produced. Comparing with traditional manufacturing method, it has some special advantages: low produce cost, short produce time, rapid response to market, component having excellent mechanical properties and graded function with variable composition and so on. It has been given more and more attention, as an advanced manufacturing technology having great potential.In this paper, LCRM is primary researched. The research mainly includes four parts. Firstly, aiming at the co-axial feeding powder, on the basis of the analysis of the density distributing of powder stream, the absorbency of metallic particle and the attenuation of laser beam by powder stream, the equation of laser power permeation rate is established in powder stream. Secondly, according correlative theory and machine design knowledge, a simple and applied four-road powder splitter and a novel co-axial nozzle without carrying gas are designed. Thirdly, a serial experiments are done, including: testing the co-axial nozzle performance, studying the effect how processing parameters affect cathment efficiency of powder, macroscopical quality of single-layer cladding and macroscopical quality of multi-layer cladding (surface quality, rigidity, crack etc.), and analyzing the microcosmical organization and the distributing of composition. Then, on the basis of above experiments, the right processing parameters is ascertained and metallic components are produced, such as complicated rectangle component and vane. Finally, a special CAD/CAM soft is developed used in LCRM, through developing AutoCAD application using ObjectARX. It is mainly consisted of generating solid module, cutting and acquiring interface data module, generating NC code module, simulating processing track and transmitting data module.