Presentation on an original article:

Wire arc additive manufacturing of high-

strength low alloy steels: Study of process
parameters and their influence on the bead
geometry and mechanical characteristics

By Harpuneet Singh
PhD research scholar (IPE)
Roll: 21805208
 Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) also known as 3D

printing (3DP), rapid prototyping (RP), direct
digital manufacturing (DDM), rapid
manufacturing (RM), and solid freeform
fabrication (SFF) is gaining much importance in
recent years owing its ability to manufacture large
metal components with high deposition rate and
material utilization[1]
While AM successfully reduces the
machining cost, minimize the production
time and usage of raw material, still it has
to overcome structural quality issues [2].
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The Generic AM Process

 Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing
Wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), variant of
Directed energy deposition uses metal wire as a deposition
material and electric arc as the source and is suitable to build
large metallic parts with less residue issues [3].

In contrast to other DED technique like Laser Engineered

net shaping, WAAM offers high deposition rate, making
WAAM more suitable for large scale complex parts [4]
 WAAM commonly has three types:

1. Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW)-based,

2. Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW)-based and
3. Plasma Arc Welding (PAW)-based.

GMAW is a welding process in which an electric arc forms between a

consumable wire electrodes, usually held normal to the substrate and the
work piece metal. Both GTAW and PAW processes used non consumable
electrode wire; however difference lies in temperature zones.

The temperature in plasma arc is three times than that in arc produced by
GTAW causing less weld distortion and smaller welds with higher welding
speeds
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the a) GMAW, b) GTAW, and c) PAW process
 Example parts
WAAM’s layer height is normally in the range of 1– 2 mm, resulting
in a surface roughness (the waviness) of roughly 500 mm for single
track deposits.
Figure 2 shows a 24 kg Ti–6Al–4V external landing gear assembly. The part
was also built at 0.8 kg/h on either side of the plane, which gave the largest
symmetry sharing the same set-up of the spar of Fig. 2a and b. This part feature
T junctions, crossings, perpendicular and slightly tilted walls. With a BTF ratio
of 1.2, WAAM enabled material savings in excess of 220 kg.

Figure 2: 24 kg Ti–6Al–4V external landing gear assembly

1. The WAAM process has been studied extensively on
different steels; however, the influence of process
parameters, specifically wire feed speed (WFS), travel
speed (TS), and their ratio on bead geometry,
microstructure, and mechanical properties, are yet to be
studied.
2. The present work aims at closing this gap by using the
WAAM process with robotic cold metal transfer(CMT)
technology to manufacture high-strength structural steel
parts. For that purpose, single-bead welds were
produced from HSLA steel by varying WFS between 5
and 10 m/min and the WFS to TS ratio between 10 and
20. Those variations produce heat inputs in the range of
266–619 J/mm.
3. Cold metal transfer (CMT) has been widely implemented for
WAAM processes, due to its high deposition rate, low heat input,
and high bead quality production nearly without spatter [5].

4. CMT is a modified MIG welding process variant that relies on a

controlled dip transfer mode mechanism. In addition, coaxial wire
feeding of MIG provides simplicity for the deposition head
motion, compared with TIG and plasma welding processes [6].

Experimental procedure
Materials

Hot-rolled S355 structural mild steel, was used as a substrate.

This wire material is a low-alloy high-strength steel which is
commonly used for large-vehicle, crane, and high-strength-
pressure vessel manufacturing.
 Experimental setup
The motion system is a 6-axis KUKA KR30 HA robot arm. The “Fronius
TPS400i” with CMT welding process is used as a welding power supply. The
deposition speed and weld path were controlled by a robot arm, while other
parameters such as voltage and current were controlled with CMT power supply
by choosing the wire feed speed. The CMT torch was fixed on the robotic arm
and hold vertical to the substrate during the
deposition.

Figure 3. Experimental setup of the CMT-WAAM system

 Process parameters
In the first stage of the experiments, single weld beads were deposited to investigate
the influences of parameters on bead characteristics such as
1. width,
2. height,
3. penetration,
4. penetration area, and
5. reinforcement area.

In the present study, shielding gas type and mixture, gas flow rate, wire diameter,
and contact tip to work distance (CTWD) were kept as constant process parameters.
Moreover, arc length and dynamic correction were kept in-active
1. Wire feed speed (WFS) and its ratio to travel speed (TS),
which is denoted as WFS/TS, were selected as variable process
parameters. For this study, the ratio of WFS/TS was selected as
a variable, since its control provides good weld bead quality by
avoiding disproportional combinations of welding parameters
of WFS and TS.

2. Heat input denoted as HI (J/mm) is calculated based on the

following equation. where V is the voltage (V) and I is the
current (A), whose average values were read from the welding
power supply measurements.
3. Three different WFS/ TS ratios were set, and those ratios
produce low, medium, and high heat input levels. Six different
WFS values were set making a total of 18 combinations for
deposition of single weld beads.

4. Eighteen weld beads with the length of 200 mm were deposited

on plates next to each other according to the parameters listed in
Table 1.

Table 1: Varied process parameters for deposition of single weld beads

Figure 4: Deposition path strategies: a) parallel and b) oscillation
5. Two single-bead walls, one with low and another with high
heat input levels according to the process parameters in Table
1, were built in order to investigate the influence of heat input
on microstructure and mechanical properties. The process

6. parameters of the low heat input wall were set as WFS 6

m/min and ratio of WFS/TS 10, and the high input wall’s
parameters were WFS 10 m/min and ratio of WFS/TS 20.
 Results and discussions
Interrelation between welding parameters and heat input
1. In WAAM, every layer is deposited with an additional amount of heat
causing heat accumulation. This heat accumulation influences process
stability, geometrical accuracy, and material properties. WFS and TS are the
major process parameters controlling the heat input for the WAAM process
as in the gas metal arc welding.
2. For the present study, the heat input decreases by 17% on average while
doubling the WFS for all three WFS/TS ratios,
 Effect of heat input on weld bead characteristics
1. The characteristic dimensions of weld bead have a very strong positive linear
correlation with the heat input.

Figure 5. Comparison of overall dimensions of 18 single weld beads. WFS/TS, heat input
(J/mm), and travel speed—TS (m/min)—values of each single bead are also indicated
2. The deposited material volume increases directly with the WFS/ TS ratio. This ratio
also correlates almost perfectly linear with the heat input.

3. When the WFS/TS ratio is increased by lowering the TS, more material is deposited
on unit cross sectional area. In addition, more heat is transferred to the material,
since there is more time to transfer the arc energy to material due to lower TS

Effect of heat input on hardness of weld beads

Figure 6. Correlation between Vickers microhardness values and heat input

Hardness values are inversely proportional with the heat input. The hardness
values as well as tensile properties are related directly to the final microstructure.
The deposited material goes through two important phase transformations, first
from liquid to solid and then solid-state phase transformations that produce the
final microstructure. The local composition and cooling rate determine the
kinetics of those mentioned phase transformations, which in turn determine the
final microstructure
Microstructure and hardness of wall geometries
Vickers microhardness variation of single-bead low-heat input, high-heat input,
and multiple-bead oscillation walls are shown in Fig. 7. The average
microhardness of the walls is 330 ± 19, 318 ± 18 and 295 ± 11 HV, respectively
The standard deviation of hardness values is very low, indicating a uniform
hardness distribution, due to the homogeneity of the microstructure along the
building structure. The microstructure of the walls is also given in Figs. 12 and 13.
The hardness is lowest on the middle side of the wall at both single walls as shown
in Fig. 11a, since the cooling rate decreases, and heat accumulation increases from
the substrate to the upper side of the walls. Heat accumulation is even higher for the
SBHH wall, and therefore, its hardness is lower than the SBLH wall, especially
when the distance from the substrate is above 40 mm.
Figure 7. Hardness distributions of a single-bead walls and b multiple-bead walls along
the building direction
Figure 8 shows the macro-structure of the specimens, together with optical micrographs
taken at ×50 magnification. The macro-graphs (the insets in Fig. 8) show the deposition
layers. The optical micrographs show the segregations, which form during the initial
solidification. The initial solidification structure is austenite in dendritic form, which then
transforms into mixtures of ferrite, bainite, and martensite as shown in Figs. 9 and 10.

Figure 8. Optical micrographs taken at ×50 together with macro-photographs of the

specimens: a SBLH, b SBHH, and c MBO
Figure 9. SEM micrographs taken at ×7500 together with ×100 optical micrographs as
insets of single-bead wall specimens’ different regions: middle region, 70 mm away
from substrate of a SBLH, b SBHH; substrate region of c SBLH and d SBHH. The
microstructural features are also denoted, F: ferrite, B: bainite, M:martensite
 Figure 10. SEM micrographs taken at ×7500 together with ×100 optical micrographs as
insets of MBO specimens’ different regions: a substrate, b 20 mm away from substrate.
The microstructural features are denoted the same as in Fig. 9
 Conclusions
1. The WFS/TS ratio is the most significant process parameter for controlling
heat input. For the investigated parameter range, the heat input correlates
linearly with the characteristic bead dimensions including weld width, height,
penetration, penetration area, and reinforcement area.

2. Single weld beads showed an inversely proportional relation between

hardness and heat input. In that case, hardness showed a uniform distribution
along the building direction of walls.

3. The tensile and yield strength of single-bead walls do not change significantly
with testing direction. On the other hand, total and uniform elongation values
exhibit up to 10% difference, indicating an anisotropy in elongation values
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