Laser enhancement of wire arc additive manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) can be used for the fabrication of large metal parts, e.g., aerospace/space applications. Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) can be a suitable process for this due to its high deposition rates and relatively low equipment and operation costs. In WAAM, an electrical arc is used as a heat source and the material is supplied in the form of a metal wire. A known disadvantage of the process is the comparably low dimensional accuracy. This is usually compensated by generating larger structures than desired and machining away excess materials. So far, using combinations of arc in atmospheric conditions with high precision laser heat sources for AM has not yet been widely researched. Properties of the comparable cheap arc-based process, such as melt pool stability and dimensional accuracy, can be improved with the addition of a laser source. Within this paper, impacts of adding a laser beam to the WAAM process are presented. Differences between having the beam in a leading or a trailing position, relative to the wire and arc, are also revealed. Structures generated using the arc-laser-hybrid processes are compared to ones made using only an arc as the heat source. Both geometrical and material aspects are studied to determine the influences of laser hybridization, applied techniques including x ray, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and high precision 3D scanning. A trailing laser beam is found to best improve topological capabilities of WAAM. Having a leading laser beam, on the other hand, is shown to affect cold metal transfer synergy behavior, promoting higher deposition rates but decreasing topological accuracy.

Welding-based additive manufacturing processes for fabrication of metallic parts

“…They have acquired an average hardness rating of 355 ± 28 HV0.5 in constructed conditions. The effects of laser amplification with both a leading and the following laser beam on CMT-based WAAM have been researched by Nasstrom et al 81 The topological capabilities of WAAM are found to be best enhanced by a trailing laser beam.…”

Forming accuracy improvement in wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM): a review

“…For example, changing the surface energy of the molten pool makes it difficult for droplets to spread. The droplet has a large wetting angle owing to the laser effect (Singh et al , 2022; Näsström et al , 2019; Singh et al , 2021; Chi et al , 2020), as shown in Figure 7. The outcome of using oscillating laser-assisted WAAM is the opposite; herein, the temperature distribution inside the molten pool is altered, which triggers an increase in the width of the deposited layer owing to the impact of the liquid metal from the bottom to the walls of the molten pool (Gong et al , 2020).…”

Multi-Objective Optimization for Forming Quality of Laser and CMT-P Arc Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Aluminum Alloy Using Response Surface Methodology

“…The primary techniques for aluminum alloy additive manufacturing include la additive manufacturing (LAM) and wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) [13-1 LAM offers high forming accuracy but suffers from low production efficiency and exc sive laser energy loss [16,17]. In contrast, WAAM exhibits high productivity but faces ch lenges such as poor forming accuracy and numerous defects [18][19][20]. Combining the vantages of both techniques, laser-arc hybrid additive manufacturing (LAHAM) in grates a laser and an electric arc.…”