Impact of a variation in Wire Feed Speed on deposits from the wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM)

Metal Additive Manufacturing (MAM) is one of the innovative industrial technologies of the last decade, which presents some benefits as compared to traditional manufacturing techniques. MAM is faster, less expensive, and allow the manufacturing of large, complex components than casting, foundry etc. Understanding the influence of process parameters on the deposited matter and material characteristics is essential for the manufacturing of industrial parts. Current research concentrates on the impact of parameters on the fabricated structure geometry, microstructure and mechanical properties. There are limited number of studies, that focus on the possibility of Wire Feed Speed (WFS) parameter variation during deposition. In this work, a series of trials were realised with Cold Metal Transfer. The results showed that the quantity of material deposited was lesser than the theoretical value. The variation obtained was explained by the difference between the inputted WFS on the generator and the actual WFS output. Hence, the result on the influence of the variation of WFS on bead geometry was applied to a thermofluid model with Ti-6Al-4V alloy to confirm the sensitivity of this parameter in the quantity and geometry of the material deposited.