Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design, Systems, and Manufacturing (Jul 2024)
Investigation of relationship between process conditions and bead formability in wire additive manufacturing using Joule heating
Abstract
The Direct Energy Deposition (DED) method in wire feed additive manufacturing (AM) has been attracting attention in the industrial field mainly because of its flexibility in shaping and speed of fabrication. Deposited metal accuracy is more susceptible to the effects of gravity and surface tension in molten pool than other AM methods such as Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) which leads to limitations in terms of accuracy and surface quality. Therefore, a novel deposition method using wire material and a hot-wire method as the main heat source is developed. In the hot-wire method, an electric current is passed through the wire and Joule heating occurs in the wire. The objective of this study was to verify the feasibility of a process for continuously depositing metal by applying Joule heating to the wire to improve accuracy and suppress bead width spreading. The first step of research consisted of the fabrication of the experimental device followed by a bead-on-plate test using the device. The wire was melted by Joule heating, and the relationship between electric power and the width of deposited metal was investigated. By using this method, deposition of metal was enabled using a bead with a width nearly equal to the diameter of the wire material used. This is expected to improve shape accuracy.
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