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Additive manufacturing (AM) in general and laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) in particular are becoming increasingly important in the field of production technologies. Especially the high achievable accuracies and the great freedom in design make PBF-LB/M interesting for the manufacturing and repair of gas turbine blades. Part repair involves building AM-geometries onto an existing component. To minimise the offset between component and AM-geometry, a precise knowledge of the position of the component in the PBF-LB/M machine is mandatory. However, components cannot be inserted into the PBF-LB/M machine with repeatable accuracy, so the actual position will differ for each part. For an offset-free build-up, the actual position of the component in the PBF-LB/M machine has to be determined. In this paper, a camera-based position detection system is developed considering PBF-LB/M constraints and system requirements. This includes finding an optimal camera position considering the spatial limitations of the PBF-LB/M machine and analysing the resulting process coordinate systems. In addition, a workflow is developed to align different coordinate systems and simultaneously correct the perspective distortion in the acquired camera images. Thus, position characteristics can be determined from images by image moments. For this purpose, different image segmentation algorithms are compared. The precision of the system developed is evaluated in tests with 2D objects. A precision of up to 30μm in translational direction and an angular precision of 0.021∘ is achieved. Finally, a 3D demonstrator was built using this proposed hybrid strategy. The offset between base component and AM-geometry is determined by 3D scanning and is 69μm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The laser implantation–named technique aims to address the tribological problems frequently seen on tool surfaces during hot stamping. It is based on the creation of elevated dome- or ring-shaped hard structures on the surface of tool steels by a localized dispersing of hard particles. Therefore, a combination of the two distinct approaches that are normally used in surface technology for optimizing friction and wear, i.e., surface texturing and surface material optimization, are realized in one processing step. In experimental studies, a localized dispersing of TiB2 particles in the surface layer of the hot work tool steel X38CrMoV5-3 was considered and compared with punctual laser–remelted textures. The structures (micro-) hardness was measured at top- and cross-sections. With the aid of a scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction the interaction between the hard particles and the substrate material were studied. From the results, an optimal parameter range was identified for laser implantation. To the investigation's end, the implant geometry was measured by optical microscopy and white light microscopy. Furthermore, a mathematic model was introduced, which allows a prediction of the implant geometry as a response to the laser parameters. It was shown that the implantation of TiB2 particles leads to a significant hardness increase up to 1600 HV1 due to the dispersion of initial particles and an in situ precipitation of new titanium-rich phases. It was possible to create defect-free dome- and ring-shaped microstructures on the surfaces. It was also shown that the implants geometry highly depends on the applied laser parameters. The applied central composite design shows a good agreement with the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]