Inspection of Powder Flow During LMD Deposition by High Speed Imaging

AbstractLaser cladding and LMD (Laser Metal Deposition) processes are continuously gaining ground in aerospace and energy industries. One of the known issues with that kind of processes is the difficulty of maintaining a constant and well distributed powder flow mass rate between the nozzle and the substrate. In this work, a method for real time inspection of powder distribution and mass flow rate is presented. Inference of mass flow rate and powder distribution is made using a high speed camera and a laser illumination device. Both on-process and off-process monitoring can be achieved. Different experimental results for the validation of the proposed method are presented