Powder spreading process monitoring of selective laser melting manufacturing by using a convolutional Takagi–Sugeno–Kang fuzzy neural network

Process monitoring plays a pivotal role in elucidating the intricate interplay among process, structure, and property in additive manufacturing production. The control of powder spreading affects not only particle adhesion but also rearrangement, both of which are indispensable constituents in the selective laser melting (SLM) process. To develop a novel monitoring process, this study proposed a convolutional Takagi–Sugeno–Kang fuzzy neural network (C-TSKFNN) to assess images with uneven powder distribution. The performance of the model was compared with that of conventional image analysis and state-of-the-art deep learning models. With its fusion layer and TSKFNN design, the C-TSKFNN model retains the distinctive characteristics of input images and minimizes expenditures through trainable parameters. The experimental results demonstrated that the average F1 score of the C-TSKFNN model achieved 97.07% and that it had the lowest standard deviation compared to state-of-the-art deep learning models. The trainable parameters were only 103,506, which is lower than those of models. Defect information was also provided locally through a model interpretation technique, facilitating the monitoring of SLM manufacturing.