Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Robotic skeleton arc additive manufacturing of aluminium alloy

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To meet lightweight demands, complex support or near-net shaped structures are increasingly applied in modern industry sectors. Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) of these structures requires a profound knowledge of the interactions between material properties, welding process and mechatronic engineering. This study shows a new WAAM strategy, termed skeleton arc additive manufacturing (SAAM), adapted especially for building freeform wire-structured aluminium component, and further contributes a bead modelling study to establish welding parameters, geometric features and material properties relationship. The results show that good geometrical features and sound metallurgical properties can be achieved for wire-structure aluminium parts using the proposed approach. The strut diameter gradually increased with the amplified welding arc-on time and wire feed speed; however, they present significant changes in the microstructural evolution and mechanical strength. A sample demonstration further displays an effective path to create typically wire-structure part with good quality and offers the main processing challenge and coping strategy during SAAM.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17
Fig. 18
Fig. 19

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Ford S, Despeisse M (2016) Additive manufacturing and sustainability: an exploratory study of the advantages and challenges. J Clean Prod 137:1573–1587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Mezzadri F, Bouriakov V, Qian X (2018) Topology optimization of self-supporting support structures for additive manufacturing. Addit Manuf 21:666–682

    Google Scholar 

  3. Gao W, Zhang Y, Ramanujan D, Ramani K, Chen Y, Williams CB, Wang CCL, Shin YC, Zhang S, Zavattieri PD (2015) The status, challenges, and future of additive manufacturing in engineering. Comput Aided Des 69:65–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Calignano F (2014) Design optimization of supports for overhanging structures in aluminum and titanium alloys by selective laser melting. Mater Des 64:203–213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Vaidya R, Anand S (2016) Optimum Support Structure Generation for Additive Manufacturing Using Unit Cell Structures and Support Removal Constraint. Procedia Manuf 5:1043–1059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Williams SW, Martina F, Addison AC, Ding J, Pardal G, Colegrove P (2016) Wire + Arc Additive Manufacturing. Mater Sci Technol 32(7):641–647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. D.H. Ding, Z.X. Pan, C. Dominic, H.J. Li, Process Planning Strategy for Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing, Robotic Welding, Intelligence and Automation, Springer2015, pp. 437-450.

  8. Wu B, Pan Z, Ding D, Cuiuri D, Li H, Xu J, Norrish J (2018) A review of the wire arc additive manufacturing of metals: properties, defects and quality improvement. J Manuf Process 35:127–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Yu Z, Yuan L, He F, Ding D, Polden J and Pan Z (2019) The Strategy for Fabricating Wire-Structure Parts Using Robotic Skeleton Arc Additive Manufacturing, 2019 IEEE 9th Annual International Conference on CYBER Technology in Automation, Control, and Intelligent Systems (CYBER), Suzhou, China, pp. 119-124.

  10. Zhang H, Huang J, Liu C, Ma Y, Han* Y, Xu T, Lu J and Fang H (2020) Fabricating Pyramidal Lattice Structures of 304 LStainless Steel by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing, Materials 16:3482.

  11. Xu T, Tang S, Liu C, Li Z, Fan H, Ma S (2020) Obtaining large-size pyramidal lattice cell structures by pulse wire arc additive manufacturing. Mater Des 187:108401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Abe T, Sasahara H (2019) Layer geometry control for the fabrication of lattice structures by wire and arc additive manufacturing. Addit Manuf 28:639–648

    Google Scholar 

  13. Li Y, Yu S, Chen Y, Yu R, Shi Y (2020) Wire and arc additive manufacturing of aluminum alloy lattice structure. J Manuf Process 50:510–519

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Wu B, Ding D, Pan Z, Cuiuri D, Li H, Han J, Fei Z (2017) Effects of heat accumulation on the arc characteristics and metal transfer behavior in Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing of Ti6Al4V. J Mater Process Technol 250:304–312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Brandl E, Schoberth A, Leyens C (2012) Morphology, microstructure, and hardness of titanium (Ti-6Al-4 V) blocks deposited by wire-feed additive layer manufacturing (ALM). Mater Sci Eng A 532:295–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Miao Q, Wu D, Chai D, Zhan Y, Bi G, Niu F, Ma G (2020) Comparative study of microstructure evaluation and mechanical properties of 4043 aluminum alloy fabricated by wire-based additive manufacturing. Mater Des 186:108205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Wei HL, Elmer JW, DebRoy T (2016) Origin of grain orientation during solidification of an aluminum alloy. Acta Mater 115:123–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Wu B, Pan Z, Ding D, Cuiuri D, Li H (2018) Effects of heat accumulation on microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V alloy deposited by wire arc additive manufacturing. Addit Manuf 23:151–160

    Google Scholar 

  19. Inoue T, Horita Z, Somekawa H, Ogawa K (2008) Effect of initial grain sizes on hardness variation and strain distribution of pure aluminum severely deformed by compression tests. Acta Mater 56(20):6291–6303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. A. International, ASTM E1648-15, Standard Reference Radiographs for Examination of Aluminum Fusion Welds, www.astm.org, West Conshohocken, PA,, 2015.

  21. Ahmad R, Bakar M (2011) Effect of a post-weld heat treatment on the mechanical and microstructure properties of AA6061 joints welded by the gas metal arc welding cold metal transfer method. Mater Des 32(10):5120–5126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Haselhuhn AS, Buhr MW, Wijnen B, Sanders PG, Pearce JM (2016) Structure-property relationships of common aluminum weld alloys utilized as feedstock for GMAW-based 3-D metal printing. Mater Sci Eng A 673:511–523

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Bo J, Wang J, Shi J (2015) Microstructure and mechanical properties of 4043 aluminum alloy thin wall parts manufactured by TIG WAAM. Welding 10:23–26

    Google Scholar 

  24. Romano S, Patriarca L, Foletti S, Beretta S (2018) LCF behaviour and a comprehensive life prediction model for AlSi10Mg obtained by SLM. Int J Fatigue 117:47–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Pal K, Pal SK (2011) Effect of pulse parameters on weld quality in pulsed gas metal arc welding: a review. J Mater Eng Perform 20(6):918–931

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Montevecchi F, Venturini G, Grossi N, Scippa A, Campatelli G (2018) Idle time selection for wire-arc additive manufacturing: A finite element-based technique. Addit Manuf 21:479–486

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This paper includes research that was finically supported by DMTC Limited (Australia). The authors have prepared this paper in accordance with the intellectual property rights granted to partners from the original right.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Bintao Wu, Zengxi Pan, Yu Ziping, Stephen van Duin & Huijun Li

  2. DMTC Ltd., 24 Wakefield Street, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia

    Zengxi Pan, Stephen van Duin & Huijun Li

  3. Lockheed Martin Corporation, Littleton, CO, 80127, USA

    Edward Pierson

Authors
  1. Bintao Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zengxi Pan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yu Ziping
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Stephen van Duin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Huijun Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Edward Pierson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Bintao Wu carried out the experiment and wrote the manuscript with support from Stephen van Duin. Ziping and Yu performed the deposition strategy for case study. Zengxi Pan and Huijun Li supervised the findings of this work. Edward Pierson supervised the project. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Bintao Wu or Zengxi Pan.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

Authors promise that this manuscript is original, and it has not been published in whole or in part nor is it being considered for publication or submission elsewhere.

Consent to participate

We make sure the author group, the corresponding author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission.

Consent to publish

The authors have reviewed the present version of the manuscript and approved it for publication.

Competing interests

All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wu, B., Pan, Z., Ziping, Y. et al. Robotic skeleton arc additive manufacturing of aluminium alloy. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 114, 2945–2959 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-07077-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-07077-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation