Experimental investigation of hot-wire laser deposition for the additive manufacturing of titanium parts

Abstract

Hot-wire laser welding is additive manufacturing (AM) technique that allows for the direct creation of complicated objects by melting layers of wire. This process is characterized by the use of hot-wire process, unification with the laser welding (LW) process in AM process. The empirical investigation of AM employing a hot-wire laser welding on a titanium alloy (grade 2) workpiece is presented in this research. There are three parameters in the hot-wire laser process namely wire current, welding speed, and wire feeding speed; this research examined porosities, microhardness, tensile stress, and residual stress. The filler metal used titanium AMS (American welding society) 4951F welding wire of grade 2 and measures 1.6 mm in diameter. Finally, the suitable hot wire laser welding parameters should be 0.183 cm s ^−1 for the welding speed, the wire current of 40 A, and the wire feeding speed of 1.00 m min ^−1 are 0.183 cm s ^−1 for welding speed, 40 A for wire current, and 1.00 m min ^−1 for wire feeding speed, which will give the average Vicker microhardness of 321.00–345.80 HV, the average tensile strength of 432.02 MPa (substrate); 670.30 MPa (horizontal direction), 497.39 MPa (vertical direction).

Keywords

• laser welding
• wire feed
• additive manufacturing
• titanium alloy grade 2
• hot-wire process
• physical and mechanical properties