A new TWI membersÂ’ Core Research Project (CRP) has been launched, bringing together expertise from three different technology groups in TWI to investigate various integrated additive manufacturing strategies, from feedstock customization to online monitoring techniques, to ensure build consistency and part quality.
With its high deposition rates and large build envelope, Directed Energy Deposition with Arc, known as Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), has gained significant interest in various industries.
This multidisciplinary CRP project will combine TWIÂ’s expertise in microstructural analysis, non-destructive testing (NDT) and arc welding engineering, to develop a constant output approach to WAAM deposition. In parallel, conventional NDT techniques will be adapted to monitor WAAM deposition, from which key information can be extracted for feedback control. In addition, this project will also draw on a catalogue of over 1500 samples of multi-pass butt welds with varying levels of 16 different alloying elements, to identify the relationships between alloying elements and reheated microstructures. This will be used to develop an improved consumable composition for WAAM applications. Finally, the improved consumable will be deposited using the developed constant output approach to demonstrate the potential for high-quality WAAM builds.
