WAAM system with interpass temperature control and forced cooling for near-net-shape printing of small metal components

Abstract

In an attempt to find a solution similar to the FDM 3D printers which would allow cost-effective and reliable additive manufacturing of metal components, this paper proposes a three-axis WAAM system capable of reliably printing small, near-net-shape metal objects. The system consists of gas metal arc (GMA) process equipment, a three-axis CNC positioning system, the interpass temperature control and forced cooling of the base plate and the deposit. The main challenge addressed is the minimisation of shape distortions caused by excessive heat accumulation when printing small objects. The interpass temperature control uses an IR pyrometer to remotely measure the last deposited layer and a control system to keep the interpass temperature below the predefined value by stopping the deposition after each layer in order to allow the deposit to cool. This results in a stable and more repeatable shape of the deposit, even when the heat transfer conditions are changing during the build-up process. The combination of adaptive interlayer dwell time and forced cooling significantly improves system productivity. Open-source NC control and path generation software is used, which enables fast and easy creation of the control code. Different control methods are evaluated through the printing of simple walls, and the printing accuracy is evaluated by printing small shell objects. As the results show, the interpass temperature control allows small objects to be printed at near-net shape with a deviation of 2%, which means that successful printing of 3D shapes can be achieved without trial and error approach.