Fundamental Study on Next Generation Multi-Material Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing

Two decades after being conceived as a manufacturing process, it is the time for wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) to go beyond merely a near-net-shape printing of 'a geometry'. Intending to resolve the issues of fundamental scientific importance pertaining to the functional multi-material WAAM products with controllable properties, the project envisages far-reaching impacts, enabling the small and medium-sized enterprises to print metal products with in-house designed materials. The project is designed to solve unresolved problems on the typical corrugated surface of WAAM components in conjunction with metallurgical problems related to multi-material applications. The approach to answer the relevant research questions about - multi-material WAAM process design, sensor selection, control algorithm for simultaneously acting material-specific multiple feedback loops, and material-driven adaptive post-processing is bundled in four work packages and ten milestones. The fundamental insight obtained through the foregoing concludes in the final milestone of printing the actual components that are optimized for their properties and use of critical raw material. The attention given to frame the research team with complementary and supplementary attributes in experimental, numerical, and computational investigations provides a comprehensiveness expected from a highly competitive proposal. Besides the answers to the research questions designed for the project, the outcomes of the project will have strong potential to pave the way for on-demand in-situ alloying for the applications like high entropy biocompatible alloys. The roadmap to push the boundaries beyond the state-of-the-art and to serve the societal commitment, as proposed, will form the basis of the future consortium of academic and industrial partners for EU project/s in clusters like Digital, Industry and Space, Energy and Mobility, Society, Health, Culture and Natural Resources.

Keywords:Wire arc additive manufacturing, multi-material, process control, adaptive machining, critical raw materials

Disciplines:Manufacturing processes, methods and technologies