Initial Investigation of Online Control System for Selective Laser Melting Process: Multi-layer Level

Selective Laser Melting (SLM), an additive manufacturing process, has attracted significant attention from academia and industry over the past two decades. SLM is a productive technique for creating complex industrial components and tools with fewer stages, resulting in resource conservation in contrast to conventional manufacturing methods. Nonetheless, the current platforms employed in SLM metal part production lack the efficient utilisation of an online closed-loop system. The literature showed a significant place for utilising advanced control systems to improve overall performance. Such enhancement will enable the process to be used to fabricate more sophisticated parts. Introducing an online control system could also empower part production with better internal microstructure characteristics. This research reports an initial investigation of applying a closed-loop system to reduce the effect of heat accumulation while building a multi-layer object, thus improving the system. The controller changes the laser input in the track and considers the temperature residuals for the completed layers. The simulation results presented a significant improvement in disturbance rejection and better control of the melt-pool characteristics.