Performance improvement of a laser cladding system through FPGA-based control

Laser cladding is a material processing technique widely used in industry for part reconstruction, coating or rapid prototyping, among other fields. Although it is sometimes applied as an open-loop technique, closed-loop control is mandatory in applications where homogeneous results are required, because the type, size, and geometry of the part being treated influence the process. The inherent non-repetitiveness of the technique makes it necessary a control of process parameters, such as laser power, fast and accurate enough according to the features of the melt pool. In a previous work, an FPGA-based measurement system was proposed to efficiently monitor the laser cladding process. This paper reports on the extension of that system to implement an enhanced control of the process, which allows the limitations of the PC-based solutions being currently used in industry to be overcome. Experimental results obtained in an industrial part reconstruction system using different part dimensions are presented, demonstrating the performance improvement achieved with regard to existing systems. The proposed solution can be applied to the treatment of small parts or complex geometries, for which the performance of PC-based systems is not good enough.