WAAMMEC Final Projectevent

A benchmark of Mechanical and Fatigue properties of steel welding wires for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

A major barrier to wide industrial application of WAAM is the lack of a systematic knowledge of both metallurgical and mechanical properties of the printed components. This applies in particular to the fatigue properties of dynamically loaded components, which are an important part of standard requirements for material qualification. Notwithstanding the static strength of additively manufactured components is often equivalent to, or even better than, that of conventionally manufactured properties, there is significant variation in reported fatigue properties. This poses a particular challenge for implementation of WAAM for dynamically loaded and critical components. The variation in fatigue properties is also influenced by faults present in the deposited metal and by surface roughness of the printed components. However, it has been shown in the literature that significant improvement in fatigue properties can be achieved with good process control.