Control System Design for Laser Additive Manufacturing Process

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing (AM), broadly known as 3D printing, is rapidly evolving as the process of choice for the creation of complex, high-value components. Attention is on AM in various industries, ranging from those concerned with aerospace to biomedicine to automotives, to fabricate parts for mission-critical applications, with high certainty in their final quality. Compared with the traditional manufacturing processes of raw material removal, cutting, and assembly, it is a "bottom-up" manufacturing method through material accumulation. Various types of heat sources, including laser beams, electron beams, and plasma or ion beams, are used to fabricate components via metal materials, nonmetal materials, and medical–biological materials. Based on the type of material and application, different AM technologies can be adopted, such as powder bed fusion, direct energy deposition, binder jetting, material extrusion, material jetting, sheet lamination, and vat photopolymirization, to produce physical objects.

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) technology is an additive manufacturing technology using lasers as an energy source. Lasers have the characteristic of high energy density, which can realize the manufacturing processing of difficult-to-machine metals, complex structures, and thin-walled parts.

LAM technology is a comprehensive technology that combines computer software, machinery, materials, control, and other multidisciplinary knowledge. It has the advantages of a wide range of applicable materials, high energy density, high forming accuracy, and good flexibility, and has completely changed the traditional manufacturing process for metal parts. At present, LAM technology is developing most rapidly in the fields of aerospace, transportation, new energy, new materials, and medical instruments.

This Special Issue, titled "Control System Design for Laser Additive Manufacturing Process", seeks high-quality work focusing on the latest advances in manufacturing processes and systems, while the classification, techniques, and applications of additive manufacturing are also of research interest. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Novel technology in manufacturing processes;
• Material processing;
• Three-dimensional printing;
• Sustainable manufacturing in industry;
• Manufacturing automation;
• Precision manufacturing and control;
• Micro–nano-manufacturing;
• Green manufacturing;
• Mechatronics and robotics.

Dr. Elham Mirkoohi
Guest Editor

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