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Experimental study for improving the productivity of laser foil printing

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Abstract

This study aims to improve the productivity of laser foil printing (LFP), which is a foil-based metal additive manufacturing (AM) process. LFP uses a dual-laser system to fabricate a 3-dimensional part in a layered fashion by performing four steps in each layer: spot welding, pattern welding, contour cutting, and edge polishing, all of which performed by use of lasers. We experimentally examined the welding and polishing steps in this study to enhance LFP productivity. The jump speed, dwelling duration, and weld path of spot welding and the line welding speed and wait time between weld lines of pattern welding are determined to minimize the LFP processing time, resulting in an eightfold increase in part fabrication productivity. Furthermore, we introduce laser edge polishing, vs. mechanical edge polishing done previously, to reduce the edge polishing time and further increase the productivity of the automated LFP process. For the laser polishing, we study laser polishing pattern (line- or spot-type polishing), polishing area, and overlapping ratio.

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The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings will be available on email request.

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Funding

This research was funded by the Intelligent Systems Center at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, 400 W 13th St, Rolla, MO, 65409, USA

    Tunay Turk & Ming C. Leu

Authors
  1. Tunay Turk
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  2. Ming C. Leu
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Tunay Turk.

Methodology: Tunay Turk.

Formal analysis: Tunay Turk.

Investigation: Tunay Turk, Ming C. Leu.

Supervision: Ming C. Leu.

Funding acquisition: Ming C. Leu.

Writing — original draft: Tunay Turk.

Writing — review and editing: Tunay Turk, Ming C. Leu.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tunay Turk.

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Turk, T., Leu, M.C. Experimental study for improving the productivity of laser foil printing. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 125, 5149–5162 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11076-y

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