Automatic stability control of power level for a hot wire laser process

Abstract

A method of mitigating arcing events in a hot wire process is provided. The method includes monitoring an arcing frequency of a hot wire process and monitoring at least one of an energy, a power, a deposition amount, or a deposition rate of the hot wire process. The method further includes adjusting at least one of a hot wire current, a hot wire voltage, a hot wire waveform characteristic, a wire feed speed, a wire approach angle, or a contact tip-to-work distance of the hot wire process to balance the arcing frequency against at least one of the energy, the power, the deposition amount, or the deposition rate of the hot wire process, where it is desirable for the arcing frequency to be low, and where it is desirable for the energy, the power, the deposition amount, or the deposition rate to be high.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.