Welding in the World

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40194-020-00921-3

RESEARCH PAPER

Influence of interpass cooling conditions on microstructure

and tensile properties of Ti-6Al-4V parts manufactured by WAAM
L. Vázquez 1 & N. Rodríguez 1 & I. Rodríguez 1 & E. Alberdi 1 & P. Álvarez 1

Received: 22 October 2019 / Accepted: 7 May 2020

# International Institute of Welding 2020

Abstract
Wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) technology is growing in interest in the last years. The technology enables the
manufacturing of real geometries by overlapping weld beads and is well suited for metallic parts with high buy-to-fly ratio.
Manufacturing costs and time are critical issues which determine the business case. Therefore, it is necessary to develop strategies
that minimise the production time while meeting quality requirements. In this regard, cooling conditions are a key factor to reduce
time and determine mechanical properties and resulting microstructure. This study aims at investigating the effect of interpass
cooling conditions on resulting mechanical properties and microstructure of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The influence of dwell time
between successive deposition of layers is investigated both for air and forced interpass cooling. Forced cooling is done by
using water-cooled anvil under base plate. The goal is to find a minimum dwell time to maximise arc-on time and deposition rate
while avoiding wall collapse, widening, oxidation and the need to apply post building heat treatment. Obtained mechanical
properties are compared with standards for products manufactured by conventional manufacturing. Additionally, microstructure,
surface finishing and part accuracy of WAAM samples are characterised.

Keywords WAAM . Ti-6Al-4V . Microstructure . Tensile properties . Dwell time . Interpass cooling

1 Introduction Main challenges related to the technology are high part accu-
racy, robust process build-up, achieving proper mechanical
In the last years, WAAM technology has been extensively properties and high part quality. Moreover, the business case
investigated by many research teams around the world. depends greatly on the manufacturing time which is usually
optimised in different steps along the process. In a first step,
Recommended for publication by Commission I - Additive welding parameters are optimised for a specific material, i.e.
Manufacturing, Surfacing, and Thermal Cutting filler metal, by manufacturing simple walls. The next step
This article is part of the collection Additive Manufacturing – Processes, requires the application of these parameters for real parts.
Simulation and Inspection The application of parameters adds complexity due to inter-
sections, different or variable wall thicknesses, heat accumu-
* L. Vázquez lation and distortions among others [1], which reduce part
lvazquez@lortek.es accuracy and prevent stable and even build-up process. At this
point, the manufacturing time needs to be optimised without
N. Rodríguez
nrodriguez@lortek.es
compromising the part quality.
The quality of WAAM-produced Ti-6Al-4V parts is
I. Rodríguez mostly related to the part accuracy which directly affects
irodriguez@lortek.es
the buy-to-fly ratio (BTF), the achievement of even layers
E. Alberdi with constant layer height and the absence of defects to
ealberdi@lortek.es obtain the required mechanical properties. Heat accumu-
P. Álvarez lation is one of the main concerns related to part accuracy
palvarez@lortek.es and distortion [2] [3–5]. For Ti-6Al-4V, the mechanical
1
characteristics are not only linked to the resulting micro-
LORTEK, Technological Centre, Arranomendia kalea 4A, structure but also the oxidation level. Both factors are
20240 Ordizia, Spain

Table 1 Chemical composition given by the provider of Ti-6Al-4V (grade 5) wire in wt.%
Filler wire Ø 1.14 mm Main alloying additions in filler wire (wt.%)
Ti C O
Ti-6Al-4V Bal. 0.050 max 0.12–0.20
largely affected by the thermal history. Hence, interpass
temperature can be controlled by different methods such
as the application of specific dwell times or by the use of
forced cooling [6].
When reactive materials are used in WAAM, such as Ti-
6Al-4V which is one of the widely used materials for struc-
tural parts in aerospace, oxidation has to be avoided in order to
maintain its specific properties [7]. In order to avoid oxidation,
the exposure to oxygen-containing atmospheres must be lim-
ited, especially at temperatures above 300–400 °C, as below
this temperature range, the oxidation rate slows down [7, 8]. In
this sense, different protection solutions have been developed
in different WAAM studies including closed chambers and
dynamic shielding systems [9]. Closed chambers limit the size
of to-be manufactured parts and the demand of protective gas
is very high. Alternative devices comparable to conventional
trailing systems for welding have also been used for the same
purpose with promising results [9]. For these dynamic
WAAM shielding systems, it is essential to ensure good
shielding conditions while the deposited material is above
the temperature range leading to quick oxidation kinetics both
during welding and interpass dwell time.
Interpass temperature also influences the stability of the
building process: at very high interpass temperatures, the ma-
terial flow eases and increases the width of the weld bead
which then leads to a loss in part accuracy and finally col-
lapses [10]. Effect of interpass temperature must be taken into
account when calculating the BTF ratio and a balance must be
found between manufacturing time and finishing machining
work. When WAAM is applied to high-value materials, the
BTF ratio needs to be as close as possible to 1. Being a near
net shape manufacturing process requiring final machining,
optimum BTF ratios for WAAM parts are usually in the range
of 1.2–1.5. These values support the business case of many
products built by WAAM [5, 10].
Fig. 1 Scheme of the location of
thermocouples
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N H Fe Al V
0.030 max 0.015 max 0.220 max 5.5–6.75 3.5–4.5
The nature of additive manufacturing itself consists of the
deposition of numerous material layers leading to a near net
shape part. This introduces a very specific thermal history
which determines the final microstructure, distortion and re-
sidual stresses in the part. During the WAAM process, the
relative cooling rate is low compared to other additive
manufacturing processes such as laser-based powder bed fu-
sion, as it melts a very fine layer of powdered particles at high
speed [11]. The amount of material melted with WAAM is
higher which leads to higher heat preservation while obtaining
slower cooling rates [11].
In general, AM induces preferential grain growth along
the building direction and hence anisotropic mechanical
properties [12] due to columnar prior β grains aligned in
the growing direction as a consequence of different heat
dissipation conditions in different directions [13]. Prior β
grains are formed during solidification from liquid melt
pool and can be transformed afterwards due to diffusional
and non-diffusional solid-state transformation. In WAAM-
produced Ti-6Al-4V parts, the final microstructure inside
these prior β grains consists of lamellar α phase inside a β
matrix. This is generally known as a Widmanstätten struc-
ture [14, 15]. These prior β grains can be observed due to a
surrounding α phase in the grain boundaries and the dif-
ferent textures between grains. According to different au-
thors, rapid cooling rates result in a microstructure which
consists on very fine α phase, and in some cases, martens-
ite (α′) can be found in the as-built condition in WAAM-
produced Ti-6Al-4V parts [15]. This entails low ductility
which normally is solved by the application of post build-
ing heat treatments or HIP (hot isostatic pressure) [16, 11].
On one hand, these treatments also improve the fatigue
behaviour which is required for aerospace applications;
on the other hand, they add long processing times and extra
costs.
Weld World
Fig. 2 Set-up for the
manufacturing of the WAAM-
produced walls
Besides the use of post building heat treatments in order to
optimise mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V parts
manufactured by WAAM [11], some authors applied cold
work between the deposition of successive layers aiming to
create new finer microstructures with less residual stresses [8,
17, 18]. The resulting microstructure showed equiaxial grains,
and hence, more isotropic mechanical properties were obtain-
ed. The drawback of this method is the additional time needed
for the application of cold work after the deposition of each
layer and the extra axis required for that job which adds com-
plexity to the WAAM equipment. Moreover, nowadays, it is
not completely clear what influence the temperature and cold
Fig. 3 Built parts a small wall for
microstructural characterisation
and b big wall for mechanical
characterisation
working forces have on the final microstructure. Despite the
resulting recrystallised grains being mostly equiaxed, some
irregular grains are also obtained and improved interpass
working methods are being currently studied. Side peening
has led to equiaxed grains with more regular grain size [8];
however, this method cannot be applied easily to real parts.
This work aims to study the effect of interpass cooling
conditions on microstructure and tensile properties of Ti-
6Al-4V parts produced by WAAM. Cooling conditions
have been modified by changing the dwell time between
the deposition of consecutive weld beads both in air cooled
and forced cooled WAAM samples. Forced cooling

Table 2 Welding parameters for the manufacturing of walls
Current Wire feed speed Voltage Travel speed Deposition rate
(A) (m/min) (V) (cm/min) (kg/h)
140 8.5 15.8 70 2.3
conditions were applied by using a cooling plate beneath
the base plate. The assessment of the influence has been
done by the analysis of the tensile properties in different
directions (X, horizontal and Z, vertical) and the advanced
characterisation of the obtained microstructure. Best
interpass cooling conditions are proposed at the end in
order to meet the requirements such as low processing
time, regular growing and best balance of mechanical
properties. To the best knowledge of the authors, a specific
standard for the WAAM process has not been developed
until now, and as a consequence, standards from cast and
wrought materials have to be considered to check the ful-
filment of the required quality.
2 Experimental procedures
Ti-6Al-4V parts produced by WAAM were built in an arc
welding robotic cell. A Fronius transplus synergic (TPS)
4000 CMT R power source and a Robacta drive CMT
W/F++ 6.25-mm torch from Fronius International were used.
A CMT torch was attached to a 6-axis Kuka robot KR 16 KS
model with a KRC2 controller. The gas shielding of the torch
was carried out with Argon (99.999% purity) and a gas flow
Fig. 4 Scheme of the oscillating
strategy composed by a repeated
sequence of a pair of layers
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of 16 L/min. Additionally, a dynamic shielding device, de-
signed by the authors, was used in order to provide protection
against the oxidation in a big area (200 × 200 mm). The gas
flow of the shielding device was settled to 200 L/min. A 1.14-
mm diameter Ti-6Al-4V (grade 5) wire was employed as filler
metal. The chemical composition of the wire, given by the
provider, can be shown in Table 1.
For the study, a plate with internal water conformal
cooling connected to a chilling machine was attached un-
derneath the substrate of the part in order to induce forced
cooling conditions. The monitoring of the temperature dur-
ing the whole manufacturing process was achieved by two
K type thermocouples welded to the substrate. The dis-
tance between the manufactured part and the thermocou-
ples was 2 mm and the distance between the thermocouples
was 40 mm (Fig. 1).
The set-up for the manufacturing of WAAM-produced
walls can be observed in Fig. 2.
Two different types of walls were manufactured. Both
consisted of 18 mm wall thickness. Additionally, small walls
(Fig. 3a) were built by the deposition of six layers and used for
microstructural characterisation and big walls (125 × 80 mm)
(Fig. 3b) for mechanical characterisation.
Oscillating weld beads with continuous C1001 synergic
CMT curve were deposited on approximately 10-mm-thick
substrate plates which were clamped to the cooling plate. In
Table 2, the welding parameters are detailed.
Depositing of the layers was done according to an oscillat-
ing strategy as is detailed in Fig. 4. This strategy is more
versatile than parallel one as it allows the manufacturing of
zones with variable thickness present in real parts. The strate-
gy was based on a repeated sequence of a pair of layers in
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Table 3 Tested interpass

cooling conditions Dwell time (min) Cooling plate

0 Without
0 With
1 With
5 Without
9 Without

Fig. 5 Temperature profile of

applied thermal treatment

Fig. 6 Scheme of the specimens

for tensile test and their position
in the wall
 Weld World

Table 4 Mechanical properties achieved for the as-built in the horizon- Table 5 Interpass temperatures measured for the different cooling
tal direction conditions

Dwell t (min) Cooling plate YS (MPa) UTS (MPa) e (%) Interpass Te (°C) Dwell t (min) Cooling plate

0 Without 794.3 ± 4.2 900.3 ± 16.4 4.8 ± 0.4 500 0 Without

0 With 794.8 ± 18.0 895.4 ± 10.0 6 ± 0.7 300 0 With
1 With 843.0 ± 22.5 944.5 ± 14.7 7.8 ± 1.4 160 1 With
5 Without 848.1 ± 14.3 943.5 ± 12.3 5.3 ± 1 80 5 Without
9 Without 872.1 ± 8.1 995.0 ± 2.3 7.7 ± 1.2 60 9 Without
9 + 920 °C Without 829.6 ± 6.9 942.3 ± 11.4 11.3 ± 1.5
Stardard AMS 4985C-2003 827 896 6
The interpass cooling conditions applied during the
manufacturing of walls are presented in Table 3. Different
which the welding direction alternated from layer to layer. dwell times were selected ranging from 0 to 9 min and either
This strategy assures a controlled and even growth of each for interpass air cooling and forced cooling conditions. The
layer [10]. dwell time is defined as the time in which the torch is stopped
In order to obtain sound walls without internal defects, between consecutive deposition of layers. This means for a
several conditions were studied: in the XY plane, 14 mm of dwell time of 0 s that the torch directly deposits the following
oscillating width, a 4 mm step size and a corner radius of 0° layer once the previous one is finished.
were used. The torch was oriented perpendicularly to the sub- After the manufacturing of the layers, a heat treatment
strate. An offset in Z direction of 3.1 mm between layers was was applied to the longest dwell time (9 min) at 920 °C
used. The contact tip-work piece distance (CTWD) was kept for 5 h in high vacuum. The temperature profile is repre-
constant at 13 mm. sented in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 Temperature record during WAAM for the different interpass cooling conditions, including the records from two thermocouples and the use of
forced cooling (AC). The dwell times: a 0 min, b 1 min, c 3 min, d 5 min
Weld World
Fig. 8 Microstructures with
different dwell times applied
WITHOUT forced cooling: a
0 min, b 5 min, c 9 min and d
9 min with post building heat
treatment at 920 °C
The microstructural characterisation was performed by
cross sectioning the samples. For this, the samples were cut,
mounted, polished and etched. Light microscopy images were
taken with an Olympus GX51 microscope.
Mechanical characterisation was carried out in X direc-
tion (horizontal) which corresponds to the most critical
direction regarding elongation at break. The flat dog bone
tensile test specimens were extracted from the walls, ac-
cording to ASTM E8M standard, by using an electron dis-
charge machine as shown in Fig. 6. Three samples were
tested for each set of cooling conditions in as-built state.
Tensile tests were performed in a Z100 ZWICK/Roell test-
ing machine with a maximum load capacity of 100 kN.
Specimens were tested at room temperature with a dis-
placement rate of 1.6 mm/min and an extensometer with
a gauge length of 25 mm.
Oxygen content measurements were done in samples
obtained from the centre of the wall in order to verify the
protection against oxidation of the material during the
deposition.
Fig. 9 Microstructures with
different dwell times applied
WITH forced cooling: a 0 min
and b 1 min
3 Results
In this section, the experimental results obtained after different
cooling conditions will be discussed.
Table 4 details the mechanical properties determined from
the big walls. Average values from three samples are given.
Mechanical properties were obtained from the horizontal di-
rection (X) without applying post building heat treatment,
thus, in the as-built condition. The mechanical characteristics
for a dwell time of 9 min were also obtained after the heat
treatment as comparison. As highlighted earlier, this orienta-
tion is the most critical orientation in terms of elongation at
break due to a higher presence of grain boundaries.
Temperature measurements recorded by two thermocou-
ples at different dwell times for air cooling and forced cooling
conditions (AC) are plotted in Fig. 7. Note that short dwell
times and air cooling leads to higher interpass temperatures.
The difference (Δ) between the interpass temperatures after
the initial three weld beads has been highlighted to compare
the effect of the forced cooling for each dwell time.
 Weld World

Table 6 Microstructure
description and measurements of Dwell t (min) Cooling plate Microstructure Wid α laths (μm) GB α (μm)
thickness of α phase
0 Without Coarse 1.41 2.85
0 With Fine 1.73 2.71
1 With Mixed 1.37 2.02
5 Without Martensitic 1.45 2.37
9 Without Mixed 1.37 1.35
9 + 920 °C Without Coarse 3.66 3.79

The estimated values of interpass temperatures are collect-
ed from Fig. 7 and Table 5. Beyond the deposition of three
weld beads, the interpass temperature keeps constant during
the process, which means steady-state process condition and
assures a stable part manufacturing.
Micrographs were obtained from each cross section in or-
der to get a general overview of microstructural characteristics
for different tested interpass cooling conditions.
The microstructures created without forced cooling can be
observed in Fig. 8. In the case of a dwell time of 0 min, that is,
for the highest interpass temperature and lowest cooling
rates, traces of martensite (α′) can be found, whereas coarse
Widmanstätten α is the general phase. For a dwell time of
5 min, extended martensite is observed, the α phase in the
grain boundary is finer and the Widmanstätten α is very fine.
After a dwell time of 9 min, the trend is even more distinct. On
the other hand, after the application of a post building heat
treatment at 920 °C for 5 h to these samples, the martensite
disappears, and both α in the grain boundary and
Widmanstätten α become coarser.
Figure 8 d compares the as-built microstructure and the mi-
crostructure after complete post building heat treatment [19].
The resulting microstructure when applying forced cooling
is seen in Fig. 9. For dwell time of 0 min, traces of martensite
and Widmanstätten α phase are found. When a dwell time of
1 min is applied, martensite is broadly displayed and both α in
the grain boundaries and Widmanstätten α are finer.
Some microstructures are composed of grains of differ-
ent phases (martensite, fine and coarse Widmanstätten α
phase), which have been named as mixed microstructures.
The thickness of Widmanstätten α laths and α in the grain
boundaries was measured and the data is plotted in Table 6.
A minimum of 15 measurements were done in different
areas.
Figure 10 represents the measured data and shows a trend
to gather a thicker α phase in the grain boundary for higher
interpass temperatures. In the case of the thickness of
Widmanstätten α laths, it remains constant. As shown in
Fig. 8, after the post building heat treatment, the thickness
for both α types grew considerably.
Macrographs of cross-sections of WAAM walls with dif-
ferent cooling conditions are shown in Fig. 11. In the top row,
the profiles of walls manufactured without forced cooling are
shown for different dwell times. In this case, stable growth in
terms of constant wall thickness is achieved at a dwell time of
3 min; below this dwell time, the profile acquires a V shape
which entails a high BTF and is very likely to collapse. The
bottom row shows the profiles obtained with the use of a

Fig. 10 Thickness of α phases

versus interpass temperature
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Fig. 11 Profiles of WAAM-produced walls for studied cooling condition (dwell time-application of forced cooling): a 0 min-without, b 1 min-without, c
3 min-without, d 5 min-without, e 0 min-with, f 1 min-with, g 3 min-with and h 5 min-with

cooling plate. In this case, a stable growth is noticeable for a
dwell time of just 1 min.
The oxygen content was measured in the centre of the
walls. As the obtained values reveal (Table 7), no extra oxy-
gen was added to the chemical composition during the
manufacturing of the walls.
manufacturing time must be achieved while assuring the
soundness of manufactured parts.
The first goal was to optimise the manufacturing time.
CMT technology has demonstrated deposition rates up to
2.3 kg/h for Ti-6Al-4V alloy (Table 2) [19]. The reported
deposition rates are theoretical and do not include the
dwell time between the deposition of the weld beads or

4 Discussion Table 7 Oxygen content measured in the manufactured walls

Dwell time (min) Cooling plate O (wt.%)

The mechanical characterisation of Ti-6Al-4V WAAM
walls manufactured using different interpass cooling con- 0 Without 0.13 ± 0.02
ditions has demonstrated that the cooling conditions affect 0 With 0.15 ± 0.02
the mechanical properties. Interpass cooling condition de- 1 Without 0.13 ± 0.02
termines interpass temperature giving rise to different mi- 1 With 0.14 ± 0.02
crostructures and as-built mechanical properties. In order 5 Without 0.12 ± 0.02
to optimise the WAAM technology, an optimisation of the

Fig. 12 Thickness of α phases
with the obtained average
elongation in the tensile tests
arc-off time. Yet, in real WAAM applications, the time
consumption for the manufacturing of a part should in-
clude the time required for all steps. Hence, maximising
the arc-on time provides the best benefits of this
manufacturing process. In the current study, forced
cooling has been used to increase the interpass cooling,
reduce the dwell time and optimise the manufacturing
time. Through the application of interpass forced cooling,
it was shown that minimum elongation requirements are
deployed for using a dwell time 1 min versus 9 min for
the air cooling conditions.
The second goal was to check if the application of
suitable interpass cooling conditions could lead to sam-
ples meeting the standards in terms of static mechanical
properties and without the need of applying any post
building heat treatment. Additional thermal treatments
are not desirable in order to avoid the extra cost. Two
interpass cooling conditions with and without forced
cooling that comply with the current casting standards
were obtained in this study. However, in order to comply
with current wrought standards, which are more demand-
ing, the application of post building heat treatment was
required.
The conditions to enable a constant wall thickness and to
avoid a collapse of the walls due to excessive heat accumula-
tion have also been studied. For this, sound and straight wall
of six layers with constant width and 25 mm total height were
manufactured while maintaining flat and regular weld beads
along the whole deposition. The manufacturing of vertical
walls with constant thickness is critical to reduce the final
machining time which implies important savings of the costs
associated to the machining of Ti-6Al-4V.
Weld World
As shown in Fig. 11, small walls that were built without
forced cooling and using dwell times of 0 and 1 min, start
losing their straight shape. Instead, a V shape is obtained
due to the heat accumulation. Hence, the use of forced cooling
helps to reduce dwell times while keeping constant wall thick-
ness along the growth direction. In the reference [20], it is
remarked that the use of forced cooling at the substrate en-
hances the heat dissipation to avoid collapse. According to the
results of this study, the use of forced cooling increases the
strength and elongation at break values when increasing the
dwell time for 1 min. However, without forced cooling, the
dwell time needed to achieve similar results is 9 min. In both
cases, all obtained values fulfil the standard AMS 4985C-
2003 for Ti-6Al-4V castings.
Forced cooling and longer dwell times avoid the growth of
α phase along the grain boundaries as shown in Table 6. The
samples with a thinner α phase along the grain boundaries
showed higher elongations at break as observed from
Fig. 12. The coarse size and elongated shape of prior β grains
which solidified initially from the melt pool and the presence
of α phase along their grain boundaries act as a path for dam-
age propagation [21]. Other authors also reported previously
the assisted propagation of cracks along thick α phase grain
boundary [13]. On the other hand, the thickness of
Widmanstätten α laths does not have a clear influence on
the elongation at break.
Fast cooling conditions also promote the formation of mar-
tensite in the bottom of the newly deposited weld beads due to
the high cooling rates. In the resulting mixed structures, mar-
tensite is not as detrimental as a thick α phase along the grain
boundaries. The combination of thick α phase along the prior
β grain boundaries and the high amount of grain boundaries in
Weld World
Table 8 Relation between microstructural features and elongation at
break for as-built and heat-treated specimens
Dwell t Cooling Microstructure Wid α laths GB α e between the values
(min) plate (μm) (μm) (%)
0 Without Coarse 1.41 2.85 4.8
9 + 920 °C Without Coarse 3.66 3.79 11.3
the horizontal direction due to the preferential growth of β
grains along the building direction makes this feature more
critical in comparison to the presence of low amount of mar-
tensite phase.
The application of a post building heat treatment at
920 °C enhances the mechanical properties leading to a
better balance. Concretely, the elongation at break in-
creases by 47% compared to the same cooling conditions
(9 min of dwell time and without forced cooling). After the
post building heat treatment, the values comply with the
standard ISO 5832-3. The elongation at break after the post
building heat treatment is doubled compared to a dwell
time of 0 min without forced cooling (Table 8).
Nevertheless, in both cases, the microstructure has been
described as coarse. The post building heat treatment pro-
motes the growth of an α phase along the grain boundaries.
However, β grains also undergo a size reduction due to a
phase transformation and show a nearly equiaxed shape as
represented in Fig. 13. As a result, the effect of the micro-
structure on the elongation at break is more equilibrated
between the thickness of α phase along the grain bound-
aries and the Widmanstätten α laths.
Adding to the above discussion, it cannot be completely
concluded if post building heat treatment could be substituted
by a proper selection of the dwell time in combination with the
use of forced cooling. Current results show that longer dwell
times or the application of forced cooling give rise to thinner α
phases along the grain boundaries which then increases the
elongation at break.
In Table 9, the difference between the interpass tempera-
tures has been quantified from the measurements with and
Fig. 13 Macrostructure of
WAAM-produced Ti-6Al-4V
parts in the a as-built condition
and b after the application of post
building heat treatment at 920 °C
Table 9 Difference in
the interpass temperature Dwell time (min) ΔT (°C)
for each dwell time
0 200
obtained with and 1 100
without forced cooling 3 50
5 20
without the use of forced cooling. The increment of interpass
temperature is inversely proportional to the dwell time. The
influence of the cooling plate is nearly negligible for a dwell
time of 5 min whereas for a dwell time of 0 min, the increment
of the interpass temperature is ten times higher.
According to this, an optimum dwell time with forced
cooling can be assumed to be between 1 and 2 min. This dwell
time will enhance the elongation at break without needing a
post building heat treatment.
Finally, instead of using a cooling plate to get forced
cooling as it has been employed in this study, other cooling
strategies can be used [22]. Researchers from Wollongong
have used active interpass cooling to control the thermal pro-
file by using local nozzles to cool the part by blowing Ar after
the manufacturing of each layer [23]. Other researchers used
the same idea but applied Ar at the same time which might
save time but also requires an extra axis during the
manufacturing.
5 Conclusions
Conclusions generated in this study are summarised below:
& The interpass temperature is a key parameter to be con-
trolled for the heat management and affects to the quality,
mechanical properties, shape, BTF ratio and cost of the
final WAAM-produced Ti-6Al-4V parts.
& The control of the interpass temperature and the overall
interpass cooling conditions enable the achievement of a
constant layer height, wall thickness and no oxidation in
Ti-6Al-4V parts.

& Forced cooling is very effective in getting appropriate me-
chanical properties for Ti-6Al-4V alloy at short dwell
times (1 min).
& To achieve comparable results without forced cooling, the
dwell time must be increased to 9 min in order to reduce
the interpass temperature and to avoid excessive coarsen-
ing of the αGB phase.
& The mechanical properties in as-built condition highly de-
pend on the thickness of αGB and prior β grain columnar
shape. Fast cooling rates for both forced cooling or long
dwell times can avoid the coarsening of αGB and enhance
the elongation at break.
Funding information The Provincial Council of Guipuzcoa provided
support within the ADITARC project with number OF2018/2018, which
has been financed by Science, Technology and Innovation support
program.
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