High productivity fluence based control of Directed Energy Deposition (DED) part geometry

Successful and efficient hybrid manufacturing consisting of Directed Energy Deposition (DED) followed by milling as a postprocess requires that material deposited during the DED step be geometrically consistent and slightly larger than the desired final, machined dimensions. DED clad width is directly correlated to meltpool energy, while powder fluence directly correlated to DED clad cross-sectional area. Due to heat accumulation into the DED part during deposition, meltpool energy does not remain constant without modification of DED process parameters over the deposition cycle. Meltpool energy is typically managed by decreasing the laser power to reduce the energy fluence into the meltpool – though this technique limits DED productivity. If the working distance and laser optics within the deposition head are static, energy fluence reduction can also be achieved by increasing deposition head feedrate. Modifying powder mass flowrate through the deposition nozzle to maintain powder fluence into the meltpool allows for both the clad geometry to be maintained while also increasing the productivity of the DED process. Numerical simulation of the heat flow in a DED thin wall part was used to derive laser energy fluence values to maintain a constant meltpool energy. Derived values were tested using both the laser power and feedrate to moderate energy fluence into the meltpool. Results are compared to a thin wall deposited without meltpool energy control. Clad geometry variation and cycle time are both shown to reduce when using a feedrate-based meltpool energy control method as compared to laser power-based meltpool energy control or no meltpool energy control, increasing the geometric accuracy for postprocess machining and productivity.