Laser stabilization of GMAW additive manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V components

Gas Metal Arc Welding Modes in Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V

“…Despite the fact that the processes occurring at the anode are considered much less often than the processes occurring at the cathode [ 39 ], the discovered effect tends to play a crucial role in the arc burning stability during CMT. On the other hand, the observed metal transfer data exhibits a quite stable cathode spot without any wandering, which does not correlate with that presented in other study results [ 37 ].…”

“…Efficiency can be assessed through the ratio of the effective wall width to the maximum wall width; thus, the efficiency is 0.62, 0.76, and 0.56 for the CMT, CSC, and DCEN walls, respectively. Similar efficiency of the CMT printed walls was demonstrated in another researchers’ work [ 26 , 37 ].…”

“…Despite the fact that the processes occurring at the anode are considered m often than the processes occurring at the cathode [39], the discovered effect tend a crucial role in the arc burning stability during CMT. On the other hand, the o metal transfer data exhibits a quite stable cathode spot without any wandering does not correlate with that presented in other study results [37]. Rare spattering can be observed during the CMT process (Figure 4), spatters approximate size of 0.4 mm can be uncommonly repulsed from the welding po ignition start.…”

“…In summary, it can be noted that there is no critical difference in the printed walls microstructure, thus the metal transfer at the investigated intervals of the transfer parameters primarily influences the geometrical properties of the manufactured structures. Therefore, although the other works on Ti-WAAM are generally based on the CMT transfer process [26,36,37], the CSC transfer appears to be the most suitable for thin-walled structure printing due to its width efficiency and sufficient arc stability.…”

“…Several studies did not report any issues concerning metal transfer during Ti-WAAM using CMT [ 35 , 36 ]. Nevertheless, Pardal et al demonstrated that the effective wall width that could be produced by the CMT process is insufficient, which is why they applied a low-energy laser beam for arc stabilization and achieved positive results [ 37 ]. However, the use of the laser in WAAM increases the equipment cost, consequently increasing production expenses, which is why a simple solution for the Ti-WAAM at low currents is still considered to be a requirement.…”