The use of a measuring arm with a laser scanner for analysis and support of regenerative surfacing processes of forging dies

Abstract

The article presents the results of research conducted in order to develop the technology of regenerative surfacing of forging dies. The selected example shows how the use of a measuring arm with a laser scanner can be used to support the regeneration process. The tests were conducted in industrial conditions of a forging die. The analysis of the regeneration process was carried out at each of 4 stages: after wear in the forging process, after initial machining, after regenerative surfacing and after final machining. It has been shown that scanning can be used to develop programs for mechanical pre- treatment, to measure the volume of padding welds, to determine the amount of finishing allowance, to verify the effectiveness of the surfacing process and to control the quality of the die before the forging process. The obtained results confirmed the effectiveness of the regeneration carried out. In terms of performance, it has been shown that too much padding weld's material is a machining allowance. For this reason, the treatment is time and energy consuming and about 68% of the padding weld's material is waste or chips. The analysis showed the possibility of saving up to 45% of the weld metal material by using reasonable allowances of smaller thickness. These results indicate the need to modify the regeneration technology and the legitimacy of using robotic surfacing, which can provide greater precision and repeatability in the layingof padding weld’s beads. The next stage of research will be robotization of the analyzed forging die regeneration process using WAAM technology.

Keywords

• hardfacing
• regeneration
• forging die
• wear
• scanning
• remanufacturing