Research on Relationship between arc Length and arc Voltage in the Plasma Deposition Manufacture Process

The method of direct rapid metal prototyping and tooling can sharply shorten the lead-time and reduce the cost of product development, therefore it become the key technology in the RP&M. In this fleld, PDM (Plasma Deposition Manufacture) technology, based on low- cost and high e-ciency plasma power resource caused attention. This paper analysis the present status of direct rapid metal prototyping by PDM technology, discusses how to control the process parameters in the molding process and the relationship between arc length and arc voltage. Experiments demonstrate that the hardware scheme is suitable for the friendly open system with satisfled operation and maintainability. In other hand, as it is di-cult to measure the deposition height directly in the PDM process, a method for measuring deposition height by monitoring arc voltage is proposed because of the arc voltage is linear with arc length.