Fabrication of geometrical features using wire and arc additive manufacture

Abstract

Wire and arc additive manufacture enables us to build fully dense metallic parts by depositing material in layers using a welding process. Conventionally, in this process, the welding torch is always maintained in a vertical orientation, but this can cause accessibility problems and may require that the part is moved during the deposition process. The aim of the research presented in this article is to investigate the production of geometrical features using wire and arc additive manufacture with positional welding. Positional welding is particularly useful for building features with limited accessibility without having to manipulate the part. In the current work, inclined and horizontal wall features have been built using an inclined torch position. The knowledge obtained from these experiments has been further applied to build enclosed features. Additionally, a range of travel speeds has been investigated to better understand the effect of travel speed on part quality for angled walls. Factors that hinder the quality of the produced features have also been identified.