Process Monitoring, Diagnosis and Control of Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) can build up complex parts in a layer-by-layer manner, which is a kind of novel and flexible production technology. The special manufacturing capability of AM shows great application potential in various fields. However, an open-loop control method cannot guarantee the reliability and repeatability of an AM process. Defects often occur to deteriorate product quality and lead to material and time waste, which hinders the development of AM industry. In this regard, a lot of efforts have been made to make an AM process more controllable. This work proposes an AM control framework that divides the related studies into three feedback loops, including the in-situ monitoring of process defects, fault diagnosis of 3-D printers, and closed-loop control of an AM process. These three loops constitute the inspection and control of AM from the machine level to product level. Specifically, the measurement requirements for monitoring techniques, defect detection, fault diagnosis, and closed-loop control are summarized. The challenges and future trends in realizing a more reliable and repeatable AM process are discussed. Note to Practitioners—This survey is motivated by urgent need to solve product quality problems in additive manufacturing (AM) caused by open-loop control. Three feedback loops can be established to solve them. The first one is defect detection that inspects part quality during fabrication. The second one is the fault diagnosis of a 3-D printer that monitors the health and operation conditions of its actuators. The last one is closed-loop control that improves AM process reliability and repeatability by regulating process variables in real time. These three loops are all based on the feedback signals of in-situ monitoring systems. This paper reviews the related studies and provides guidance for establishing the monitoring systems, performing defect detection and fault diagnosis, and designing closed-loop control systems, which helps realize more reliable and repeatable AM.