The wire feed 3D printing

Posted on May 10, 2019 Updated on May 8, 2019

According to researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory Andrzej Nycz and Voestalpine Böhler Welding, “We achieved a precise geometry for the components by using real-time feedback sensors to correct for abnormalities. Because metal printed walls represent the basic building blocks of parts manufactured with big area additive manufacturing, we expect the same stable properties to hold for parts printed with complex geometries. Not so heavy metal. A good example is wire-feed 3D printing. Mechanical postprocessing like milling and lathing is almost always necessary. Typical fields of applications are automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding, tool making as well as service and maintenance. This additive manufacturing (AM) technique is finding favor in industries like aerospace and heavy equipment, where oversized, monolithic structures are desirable.

The Additive Report has posted numerous stories on wire-feed AM systems in the past two months.
Metallic 3D Printing (M3DP) is a Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) process and works with a plasma arc and welding wire. The plasma torch is moved by a CNC gantry system along an arbitrary path and creates a weld pool on a substrate plate. A material deposition is achieved by adding wire into the weld pool. The desired part can be generated by putting one deposition over the previous one”.

https://www.voestalpine.com

https://www.ornl.gov