Development of Adaptive Toolpaths for Repair and Cladding of Complex 3D Components by Laser Metal Deposition

The paper envisages the development of specific toolpaths for additive repair and cladding of full 3D geometry components by the Laser Metal Deposition Additive Manufacturing technique. Due to the essential difference between substractive and additive manufacturing approaches, the use of traditional substractive CAD-CAM programs is hardly suitable for a proper design and manufacturing of 3D additive manufactured AM’d components. The main key points for the development of CAD-CAM tools specifically applicable to Additive Manufacturing - AM processes are the need for an intrinsic process stability in terms of coating and layer growth, the need for a well-tailored additive track overlapping over the whole selected surface area and the need for integration of specific features relative to the laser, addition material and surface properties monitoring and control. The expected result of the full AM process based on the appropriate design tools is an efficient capability to meet not only the full 3D geometry according to the specified tolerances, but, very importantly, the microstructure specifications for the deposited material, avoiding the existence of critical defaults invalidating the fabrication or repair of the component. Moreover, the developed AZALA software must comply with the geometric specifications usual for manufacturing workstations, detecting preventively possible part-tool collisions with part and assuring an overall efficient manufacturing chain.