Characterisation of metal deposition during additive manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V BY arc-wire methods

This study considers the use of the gas tungsten arc (GTA) welding process in conjunction with ‘cold’ wire addition to give layer-wise build-up of thin walled structures, simulating those commonly found in aerospace applications, which may in the future be manufactured by additive means. Taguchi DOE and multiple regression analysis methods have been applied to quantitatively establish relationships between common process parameters including arc length, arc current, travel speed and wire feed speed and resulting weld bead geometries and actual metal deposition rates. Mathematical expressions for build-up height, thickness and surface roughness are presented and evaluated against experimental data, with observations related to physical phenomena.