Abstract
Large-scale aluminum parts are used in aerospace and automotive industries, due to excellent strength, light weight, and the good corrosion resistance of the material. Additive manufacturing processes enable both cost and time savings in the context of component manufacturing. Thereby, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is particularly suitable for the production of large volume parts due to deposition rates in the range of kilograms per hour. Challenges during the manufacturing process of aluminum alloys, such as porosity or poor mechanical properties, can be overcome by using arc technologies with adaptable energy input. In this study, WAAM of AlMg5Mn alloy was systematically investigated by using the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process. Herein, correlations between the energy input and the resulting temperature–time-regimes show the effect on resulting microstructure, weld seam irregularities and the mechanical properties of additively manufactured aluminum parts. Therefore, multilayer walls were built layer wise using the cold metal transfer (CMT) process including conventional CMT, CMT advanced and CMT pulse advanced arc modes. These processing strategies were analyzed by means of energy input, whereby the geometrical features of the layers could be controlled as well as the porosity to area portion to below 1% in the WAAM parts. Furthermore, the investigations show the that mechanical properties like tensile strength and material hardness can be adapted throughout the energy input per unit length significantly.
Highlights
Aluminum and its alloys can be used in a wide variety of applications due to their combination of favorable properties
Based on the special requirements of the aerospace, automotive and tool-making industries, the production of complex metal components including aluminum, titanium and nickel alloys has become a major focus in recent years
The welding power source was a digitally regulated gas metal arc welding (GMAW) power source, which enabled welding with the three energy-reduced arc modes cold metal transfer (CMT), CMT advanced (CMT-ADV) and CMT-PADV, which were used in this investigation
Summary
Aluminum and its alloys can be used in a wide variety of applications due to their combination of favorable properties. Due to its low cost and material properties, aluminum in particular is of great relevance for the production of large-volume lightweight components. Subtractive manufacturing methods such as milling or turning reach their technical process limits in terms of maximum available space or fabrication of undercuts in complex components. This results in a high chip volume, which reduces the efficiency of the processes
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