CHALLENGES FOR XXL COMPONENTS BY POWDER AND WIRE METAL DEPOSITION–4M SYSTEM

摘要: Whenever thinking about additive manufacturing for metals, it is very often a powder bed combined with a laser or electron beam system, that comes into ones mind. A very promising system for large parts (> 1m) is based on shape welding. This study focuses on the use of a plasma transferred arc system combined with powder or/and wire feed for MAM. The technology is quite well known for a range of materials including steels. We investigate in this study the potential for XXL space and aircraft components built up from oxygen sensitive aluminium and titanium alloys, looking into the metallurgy of phase formations, microstructures, inclusions, processing atmospheres and its influences on the material properties of the final 3D part. All of this gains in importance with the in-house build-up of a stable machine for repeatable results which is also discussed in this study.