A Review on the Weldability of Additively Manufactured Aluminium Parts by Fusion and Solid-State Welding Processes

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes are playing a significant role in several industrial sectors such as construction and machine building industries, involving a wide variety of metallic materials. Among these, the AM of aluminium alloys has developed significantly over the last decade, mainly through Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) and Directed Energy Deposition (DED) processes. Despite the many advantages of AM technology, some large or complex products cannot be produced entirely without the use of conventional manufacturing and joining processes, generally for financial or operational reasons. In this way, the ability to join conventionally and additively manufactured components or parts represents a crucial step towards their future use and the consolidation of conventional and additive manufacturing technologies. Despite the growing interest in AM technologies, there is still a significant lack of information on the joining of conventionally and additively manufactured components. The present work proposes a first review of the literature evaluating the weldability of AM aluminium alloys. The focus is on the use of fusion and solid-state welding processes and analysing the achieved microstructural evolution and mechanical properties. A clear relationship is observed between the AM technology used to produce the part, and the physical principles of the joining process. In addition, the gaps in the literature are highlighted to enable focused future work.

Keywords

• additive manufacturing
• aluminium
• powder bed fusion
• directed energy deposition
• wire arc additive manufacturing
• weldability