Adaptive tape placement process control at geometrically changing substrates

The laser-assisted tape placement process faces thermal challenges at geometrically changing substrates. Due to changing optical conditions and thereby varying local energy absorption, local differences of the process temperature occur. These temperature inhomogeneities become even more pronounced due to restrictions with regard to machine dynamics. In particular, strong directional changes, which are necessary e.g. for small machining radii, result in the relative speed between workpiece and laser beam not being constant. The use of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (short: VCSEL) as adaptive heat sources could improve the temperature control especially by use of application adapted intensity distributions that can be calculated through inverse simulations.