Design, Integrating and Controlling of Mig-Based Shaped Metal Deposition System with Externally Cold Wire Feed in Additive Layered Manufacturing Technology

Abstract

Cold wire feeding plus MIG-based shaped metal deposition process has been proved to be a promising technology capable of using materials and energies reasonably to manufacture complex large-scale metal components. The shaped metal deposition with cold wire feeding process is suitable as an alternative technique for traditional manufacturing methods, especially for complex and large-scale solid parts and it is especially used for structural components in aerospace and the manufacture and repair of dying/molds. In this paper, a new experimental setup was developed, which consists of a MIG welding source, an external cold wire feed unit and a 3-axis machine. The paper explains the design, implementation, and stages of control programing (CAD-CAM) of the developed system. Furthermore, the paper presents the important design steps from the design database using CAD to the final shape of the part to be configured. The proposed system is capable of producing parts of different shapes in sizes of more than 450 mm directly from the computer-aided design. Several components are fabricated with SS309L components to achieve the capability of the advanced proposed system. The results showed that the integrated system and the program are feasible and flexible and hence can be used to manufacture variously shaped parts.