Geometry Control of the Deposited Layer in a Nonplanar Laser Cladding Process Using a Variable Structure Controller

This paper presents a closed-loop laser cladding process used in nonplanar deposition of desired metallic materials. In the proposed system, the deposited layer geometry is continuously controlled via a sliding mode controller (SMC). The controller, which uses the scanning speed as the control input, is designed based on a parametric Hammerstein model. The model is a parametric dynamic model with several unknown parameters, which are identified experimentally using the recursive least squares method. The designed SMC is robust to all model parameters’ uncertainties and disturbances. The results showed that the tracking accuracy improves and the chattering effect reduces if an integrator on the scanning speed is added to the controller. It was observed that this addition decreases the response speed. The performance of the proposed controllers was verified through the fabrication of several parts made of SS303-L. This verification indicates that the developed closed-loop laser cladding process can reduce stair-step effects as well as production time in rapid prototyping of functional parts created with the adaptive slicing technique.