scholarly journals In-process range-resolved interferometric (RRI) 3d layer height measurements for wire + arc additive manufacturing (WAAM)

Author(s):  
Jonathan Mark Mark Hallam ◽  
Thomas Kissinger ◽  
Thomas Charrett ◽  
Ralph P Tatam

Abstract In this work a range resolved interferometry (RRI) instrument for absolute distance measurements is integrated into a wire + arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) system to provide in-process monitoring of layer height, and prospects for volume and profile monitoring are discussed. Interferometry as a coherent optical technique offers a straightforward in-process measurement even in the harsh welding environment, as compared to non-coherent techniques based either on laser profiling or camera vision systems. RRI can be accomplished at significantly lower cost, and with higher depth of field (up to 10s of cm) than existing optical coherence tomography based weld monitoring. In this experiment titanium feedstock was used to create a 150mm long, 13.5mm high weld-wall comprised of 11 welded layers. The RRI in-process measurements are in very good agreement with both mid-process, on-machine micrometer measurements taken by hand after each weld, and post-process laser scanning measurements of the completed wall. The high depth of field allows direct referencing of the layer height measurements to the build plate making the measurement independent of the motion system and build plate bending, considerably lowering uncertainties. This, together with the capability for cost-effective in-process measurements in harsh environments, should make the proposed approach very interesting for routine use in WAAM systems.

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 3482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haorui Zhang ◽  
Junjin Huang ◽  
Changmeng Liu ◽  
Yongsheng Ma ◽  
Yafeng Han ◽  
...  

Lattice structures have drawn considerable attention due to their superior mechanical properties. However, the existing fabrication methods for lattice structures require complex procedures, as they have low material utilization and lead to unreliable node connections, which greatly restricts their application. In this work, wire arc additive manufacturing is used to fabricate large-scale lattice structures efficiently, without any air holes between rods and panels. The principle and the process of fabricating the rods were analyzed systematically. The influence of the two most important parameters, including heat input and preset layer height, is disclosed. Through optical microscopy, the microstructure of the fabricated steel rods is found to consist of dendritic austenite and skeletal ferrite. The tensile strength of the rods can reach 603 MPa, and their elongation reaches 77%. These experimental results demonstrated the feasibility of fabricating lattice structures using wire arc additive manufacturing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 4694
Author(s):  
Christian Wacker ◽  
Markus Köhler ◽  
Martin David ◽  
Franziska Aschersleben ◽  
Felix Gabriel ◽  
...  

Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a direct energy deposition (DED) process with high deposition rates, but deformation and distortion can occur due to the high energy input and resulting strains. Despite great efforts, the prediction of distortion and resulting geometry in additive manufacturing processes using WAAM remains challenging. In this work, an artificial neural network (ANN) is established to predict welding distortion and geometric accuracy for multilayer WAAM structures. For demonstration purposes, the ANN creation process is presented on a smaller scale for multilayer beads on plate welds on a thin substrate sheet. Multiple concepts for the creation of ANNs and the handling of outliers are developed, implemented, and compared. Good results have been achieved by applying an enhanced ANN using deformation and geometry from the previously deposited layer. With further adaptions to this method, a prediction of additive welded structures, geometries, and shapes in defined segments is conceivable, which would enable a multitude of applications for ANNs in the WAAM-Process, especially for applications closer to industrial use cases. It would be feasible to use them as preparatory measures for multi-segmented structures as well as an application during the welding process to continuously adapt parameters for a higher resulting component quality.


Author(s):  
Yashwant Koli ◽  
N Yuvaraj ◽  
Aravindan Sivanandam ◽  
Vipin

Nowadays, rapid prototyping is an emerging trend that is followed by industries and auto sector on a large scale which produces intricate geometrical shapes for industrial applications. The wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) technique produces large scale industrial products which having intricate geometrical shapes, which is fabricated by layer by layer metal deposition. In this paper, the CMT technique is used to fabricate single-walled WAAM samples. CMT has a high deposition rate, lower thermal heat input and high cladding efficiency characteristics. Humping is a common defect encountered in the WAAM method which not only deteriorates the bead geometry/weld aesthetics but also limits the positional capability in the process. Humping defect also plays a vital role in the reduction of hardness and tensile strength of the fabricated WAAM sample. The humping defect can be controlled by using low heat input parameters which ultimately improves the mechanical properties of WAAM samples. Two types of path planning directions namely uni-directional and bi-directional are adopted in this paper. Results show that the optimum WAAM sample can be achieved by adopting a bi-directional strategy and operating with lower heat input process parameters. This avoids both material wastage and humping defect of the fabricated samples.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1563
Author(s):  
Ruibing Wu ◽  
Ziping Yu ◽  
Donghong Ding ◽  
Qinghua Lu ◽  
Zengxi Pan ◽  
...  

As promising technology with low requirements and high depositing efficiency, Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) can significantly reduce the repair cost and improve the formation quality of molds. To further improve the accuracy of WAAM in repairing molds, the point cloud model that expresses the spatial distribution and surface characteristics of the mold is proposed. Since the mold has a large size, it is necessary to be scanned multiple times, resulting in multiple point cloud models. The point cloud registration, such as the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm, then plays the role of merging multiple point cloud models to reconstruct a complete data model. However, using the ICP algorithm to merge large point clouds with a low-overlap area is inefficient, time-consuming, and unsatisfactory. Therefore, this paper provides the improved Offset Iterative Closest Point (OICP) algorithm, which is an online fast registration algorithm suitable for intelligent WAAM mold repair technology. The practicality and reliability of the algorithm are illustrated by the comparison results with the standard ICP algorithm and the three-coordinate measuring instrument in the Experimental Setup Section. The results are that the OICP algorithm is feasible for registrations with low overlap rates. For an overlap rate lower than 60% in our experiments, the traditional ICP algorithm failed, while the Root Mean Square (RMS) error reached 0.1 mm, and the rotation error was within 0.5 degrees, indicating the improvement of the proposed OICP algorithm.


Author(s):  
Shalini Singh ◽  
A. N. Jinoop ◽  
G. T. A. V. Tarun Kumar ◽  
Ashish Shukla ◽  
I. A. Palani ◽  
...  

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