Development and Experimental Assessment of a Reconfigurable Platform for Laser Processing Applications

Commercial laser-processing systems are typically designed for a specific manufacturing process, limiting their adaptability in research and prototyping environments. This study presents the staged evolution of a laboratory-scale prototype originally conceived for metal powder bed fusion into a reconfigurable laser-processing platform. Successive mechanical, optical, electrical, and control developments are consolidated, including the integration and calibration of a 200 W fibre laser, a galvanometric scanning system, motorised powder feed and build platforms, a recoater mechanism, and a combined LabVIEW and weldMARK control architecture. The capabilities of the resulting platform were assessed through optical commissioning by laser marking and two experimental case studies involving single-layer fusion of AISI 316L powder and laser transmission welding of dissimilar thermoplastics. The marking trials provided qualitative confirmation of beam delivery, focal adjustment, and programmed path reproduction. In contrast, the powder experiments produced continuous fused regions, demonstrating controlled laser–powder interaction without constituting full multilayer powder-bed-fusion validation. Thermoplastic welding generated mechanically resistant joints, with failure occurring cohesively within the foam substrate rather than at the welded interface. These results demonstrate the potential of the developed system as a reconfigurable research platform for different laser-processing operations. Nevertheless, fully automated multilayer powder bed fusion still requires improvements in platform levelling, machine-zero integration, process synchronisation, and atmosphere monitoring.