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Wire-feed additive manufacturing of metal components: technologies, developments and future interests

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Abstract

Wire-feed additive manufacturing (AM) is a promising alternative to traditional subtractive manufacturing for fabricating large expensive metal components with complex geometry. The current research focus on wire-feed AM is trying to produce complex-shaped functional metal components with good geometry accuracy, surface finish and material property to meet the demanding requirements from aerospace, automotive and rapid tooling industry. Wire-feed AM processes generally involve high residual stresses and distortions due to the excessive heat input and high deposition rate. The influences of process conditions, such as energy input, wire-feed rate, welding speed, deposition pattern and deposition sequences, etc., on thermal history and resultant residual stresses of AM-processed components needs to be further understood. In addition, poor accuracy and surface finish of the process limit the applications of wire-feed AM technology. In this paper, after an introduction of various wire-feed AM technologies and its characteristics, an in depth review of various process aspects of wire-feed AM, including quality and accuracy of wire-feed AM processed components, will be presented. The overall objective is to identify the current challenges for wire-feed AM as well as point out the future research direction.

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  1. School of Mechanical, Materials, and Mechatronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Northfield Ave, Wollongong, NSW, 2500, Australia

    Donghong Ding, Zengxi Pan, Dominic Cuiuri & Huijun Li

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  1. Donghong Ding
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  2. Zengxi Pan
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  3. Dominic Cuiuri
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  4. Huijun Li
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Correspondence to Donghong Ding.

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Ding, D., Pan, Z., Cuiuri, D. et al. Wire-feed additive manufacturing of metal components: technologies, developments and future interests. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 81, 465–481 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7077-3

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