Search

Metal Additive Manufacturing (MAM) is one of the innovative industrial technologies of the last decade, which presents some benefits as compared to traditional manufacturing techniques. MAM is faster, less expensive, and allow the manufacturing of large, complex components than casting, foundry etc. Understanding the influence of process parameters on the deposited matter and material characteristics is essential for the manufacturing of industrial parts. Current research concentrates on the impact of parameters on the fabricated structure geometry, microstructure and mechanical properties. There are limited number of studies, that focus on the possibility of Wire Feed Speed (WFS) parameter variation during deposition. In this work, a series of trials were realised with Cold Metal Transfer. The results showed that the quantity of material deposited was lesser than the theoretical value. The variation obtained was explained by the difference between the inputted WFS on the generator and the actual WFS output. Hence, the result on the influence of the variation of WFS on bead geometry was applied to a thermofluid model with Ti-6Al-4V alloy to confirm the sensitivity of this parameter in the quantity and geometry of the material deposited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Incremental sheet forming is an emerging process to manufacture sheet metal parts that is well adapted for small batch production or prototypes. The adjustment time is short, as it is sufficient to modify the tool motions to optimize the manufacturing process. Tool path generation therefore becomes a key topic linked to incremental sheet forming, and process characteristics ask for dedicated tool paths. Hence, this paper first discusses the impact of tool path types and other programming parameters on process implementation through an experimental campaign performed on a parallel kinematics machine tool. Then, a new approach to generate and control Intelligent CAM programmed tool paths is proposed. The major purpose of this innovative concept is to use process constraints for programming and controlling the tool path, which are adapted during the running of the CNC program according to real-time process data evaluation. Validation studies and an industrial implementation are finally presented to assess the efficiency of the proposed approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]