Study of an additive manufacturing technology using pulsed inductive wire melting

Abstract

Additive manufacturing is becoming increasingly widespread and has developed very dynamically in recent years. For the processing of metals, powder or wire is usually used as the feedstock. The energy source used in wire-based processes is usually electric arcs or lasers. In this contribution, a technological approach for additive manufacturing of metal structures by induction melting with pulsed generator power is used. Therefore, the principle of oscillating Lorentz forces is utilized in this approach and analytically investigated with the aid of a FE simulation model. In the experiments, a continuously fed steel wire is inductively melted and deposited dropwise onto a substrate heated to different preheating temperatures without the use of a nozzle or crucible.