Improving Additive Manufactured Metal Parts Using Laser Surface Finishing and Electrochemical Machining (IMPULSE)

增材制造（AM）可以小批量生产复杂的金属零件。不幸的是，AM固有地产生阶梯状表面光洁度，并且通过粉末床熔融工艺生产的金属部件也可以具有颗粒状纹理。零件通常经过喷丸处理以掩盖阶梯表面的影响。由于成本和获取复杂零件几何形状的困难，机加工仅用于局部区域。自动研磨精加工方法已经显示出巨大的前景，但这些方法对零件精度的控制很差，并且在某些情况下应用起来也很昂贵/缓慢。在IMPULSE项目中，将开发一种快速自动化精加工工艺，对材料去除进行精确控制。这种新方法是基于机器人控制的非接触式方法，使用激光“抛光”和电化学加工。使用两种互补的方法将在材料、零件几何形状和最终表面光洁度方面提供最大的灵活性

Additive Manufacturing (AM) can produce complex metal parts in low volumes. Unfortunately, AM inherently produces a stepped surface finish and metal parts produced by powder bed fusion processes can also have a granular texture. Parts are generally shot blasted to mask the effect of the stepped surface. Machining is only used in localised areas, due to the cost and difficulty in accessing complex part geometry. Automated abrasive finishing methods have shown significant promise but these offer poor control of part accuracy and in some cases can also be expensive/slow to apply. In the IMPULSE project a rapid automated finishing process, giving precise control of material removal, will be developed. This novel approach is based on robotically controlled non-contact methods using laser “polishing” and electrochemical machining. Using two complementary methods will provide maximum flexibility in terms of materials, part geometry and final surface finish