Characterisation of Laser System Power Draws in Materials Processing

Goffin, Nicholas J.; Jones, Lewis C.R.; Tyrer, John R.; Ouyang, Jinglei; Mativenga, Paul; Woolley, Elliot

doi:10.3390/jmmp4020048

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…There are a number of potential benefits that derive from the laser power reductions: & Reduced beam power potentially allows the same process to be carried out with a lower power laser system [32].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulated and experimental analysis of laser beam energy profiles to improve efficiency in wire-fed laser deposition

Goffin

Tyrer

Jones

et al. 2021

Int J Adv Manuf Technol

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Laser cladding is a well-established technique, with the majority of prior numerical modelling work focused on delivery and melt pool behaviour of powder-based processes. This research presents new investigations into optimised laser beam shaping for the unique characteristics of wire-based processes, where direct substrate heating, as well as heat transfer between the wire and substrate, is important. The value of this subject is the improved deposition rates and dense metallic structures that can be achieved by wire-based deposition processes compared to powder-based material delivery. The within-wire temperature distribution (AISI 316 stainless steel), the heat transfer and direct heating of the substrate (mild steel) are modelled via heat transfer simulations, with three laser beam irradiance distributions. This analysis identified the removal of localised high-temperature regions typically associated to standard Gaussian distributions, and the improved substrate heating that a uniform square beam profile can provide. Experiments using pre-placed wire and a 1.2 kW CO2 laser were analysed using cross-sectional optical microscopy to provide model validation and evidence of improved wire-substrate wetting, while maintaining favourable austenitic metallurgy in the clad material. A key finding of this work is a reduction, from 480 to 190 W/mm2, in the required irradiance for effective melt pool formation when changing from a Gaussian distribution to a uniform square distribution. This also provided a 50% reduction in total energy. The potential improvements to energy efficiency, cost reductions and sustainability improvements are recognised and discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulated and experimental analysis of laser beam energy profiles to improve efficiency in wire-fed laser deposition

Goffin

Tyrer

Jones

et al. 2021

Int J Adv Manuf Technol

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“…This energy analysis puts the laser welding process in its proper context. Equipment complexity levels can now be applied to the previous laser welding energy flow diagrams from Goffin et al (2020), with multiple processes directly compared.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the purpose of energy monitoring, the laser system was subdivided into the Laser, Motion, Cooling, Extraction and Support Systems. An identical system setup is described in detail by Goffin et al (2020). The laser was cooled using an ICS Tae Evo M03 industrial chiller system.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to apply this logic to laser welding, it is necessary to identify the equivalent components for Equation (4) in a laser welding context. Laser welding sub-systems were adapted from BSI 14955-1:2017, Annex C (BSI, 2017) and had their respective energy requirements measured by Goffin et al (2020). When this sub-system classification is applied to the approach presented by Li et al, the following equation is generated, with the sum of energy outputs on the left-hand side, and energy inputs on the right hand side:…”

Section: Energy Calculation In Manufacturing Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mathematical modelling for energy efficiency improvement in laser welding

Goffin

Jones

Tyrer

et al. 2021

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Within the global manufacturing industry, there is increasing recognition of the need to improve energy efficiency, to reduce both costs and carbon footprint. Significant work has sought to improve the energy efficiency of a variety of different processes, but in the case of laser welding, research has primarily focussed on the lasermaterial interaction and not on energy rationalisation. This work addresses this knowledge gap by methodically investigating and analysing the energy requirements of a laser welding process. In this study, a mathematical model has been created in order to take a "whole-system" approach to laser welding electrical demand, accounting for all component sub-systems of the laser cell. This model was then experimentally tested via use of an electrical energy monitor to gather energy data for an autogenous welding process carried out on 316L stainless steel at a variety of parameters. Mathematical analysis of this data was then used to create a matrix of electrical power draws at different test conditions, which was further developed into an analysis of process productivity. This revealed a very strong non-linear inverse correlation between process rate (kg/hr) and specific energy consumption (J/kg). This process productivity measurement was placed in context with other manufacturing processes, revealing that laser welding has a relatively high process rate (1E-02 -1E0 kg/hr), and relatively low energy consumption (1E+08 and 1E+09 J/kg) in comparison. A further benefit of this model is that it allows the selection of processing parameters according to their energy demand. Energy flow analysis allows the direct comparison of the energy demand of different sets of processing parameters, which metallurgical analysis shows produce similar welds. In this study, it was shown that parameter selection alone was capable of producing an electrical energy saving of 60% for a given weld. This emphasises the importance of parameter selection and control in enabling environmentally cleaner manufacturing without compromising part quality or the need for investment in capital equipment.

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“…[ 54,55 ] The necessity of energy‐consuming cooling aggregates and other auxiliary units further reduces the efficiency of laser‐drying modules. [ 53,56,57 ] The power conversion efficiency of laser drying modules can compromise the overall efficiency of the drying process. This can be mitigated partly by the ability of lasers to focus their energy output, thereby only heating the electrode coating, without losing energy to heat up the walls of the machine.…”

Section: Drying By Applying Electromagnetic Wavesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Perspective on Innovative Drying Methods for Energy‐Efficient Solvent‐Based Production of Lithium‐Ion Battery Electrodes

et al. 2022

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The process step of drying represents one of the most energyintensive steps in the production of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). [1,2] According to Liu et al., the energy consumption from coating and drying, including solvent recovery, amounts to 46.84% of the total lithium-ion battery production. [3] The starting point for drying battery electrodes on an industrial scale is a wet film of particulate solvent dispersions, which are applied to a current collector foil by slot-die coating. Conventional convective drying removes the solvent from the wet film and solidifies the layer as the drying time progresses (Figure 1). According to the state-of-the-art, electrodes are produced at a web speed of 25-80 m min À1 . [2,[4][5][6][7][8] The deviations in the coating/drying speeds are related to the constant improvement of the system technologies and the different coating thicknesses and types. For example, coatings can be applied intermittently or continuously. [9][10][11] Furthermore, double-sided coatings can be applied simultaneously or sequentially, meaning that the first side is dried first and then the second side. [4,6,7,12] In addition to the actual application methods, parameters such as mass loading and solids content determine the achievable drying rate. Pfleging et al. report typical coating speeds for thick electrodes of 30 m min À1 , whereas Mauler et al. assume that processing speeds of up to 100 m min À1 are realistic in the future. [6,7] However, the influence of the drying intensity on the structure of the electrode must be taken into account. Increasing the drying rate leads to a segregation of binder and carbon black particles contained in the formulation. [13,14] This results in a decrease in binder and carbon black at the interface between the current collector foil and the coating. Jaiser et al. divide the drying process into two different phases. During the first phase, the evaporation of the solvent leads to a shrinkage of the coated layer, the second starts once this shrinkage stops and the solvent is evaporated by capillary transport. The latter phase is mainly responsible for the binder migration. [15] For this reason, drying must be very gentle during this phase. Reducing the drying rate of anode slurries during this stage from 1.19 to 0.52 g m 2 s À1 leads to a 50% increase in adhesive strength. [15] Clearly, an elevation of the drying intensity and the associated production speed is not possible compromising electrode quality. [13,14] Regardless of the electrode parameters, however, throughput can be increased by lengthening the dryer. The difficulty here lies in handling very thin foils, which tend to wrinkle with an increase in dryer length and place new demands on the web tension controls. [4] To be able to increase production speeds and, thus, maximize throughputs, a carefully chosen

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Characterisation of Laser System Power Draws in Materials Processing

Cited by 10 publications

References 27 publications

Simulated and experimental analysis of laser beam energy profiles to improve efficiency in wire-fed laser deposition

Simulated and experimental analysis of laser beam energy profiles to improve efficiency in wire-fed laser deposition

Mathematical modelling for energy efficiency improvement in laser welding

A Perspective on Innovative Drying Methods for Energy‐Efficient Solvent‐Based Production of Lithium‐Ion Battery Electrodes

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