2023 Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium (SFF Symp 2023): Wire-fed DED: Aerospace and Others
Program Organizers: Joseph Beaman, University of Texas at Austin
Tuesday 1:40 PM
August 15, 2023
Room: Salon A
Location: Hilton Austin
Session Chair: Wei Li, University of Texas at Dallas
1:40 PM
Exploratory Study of In-space Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing with Modeling Approach: Wei Li1; Kishore Nagaraja1; Dan Bouzolin1; 1University of Texas at Dallas
Countries all over the world are rushing into space exploration due to crisis of energy and resources exhaustion on the Earth. Mars is an obvious target because it has a thin atmosphere, good geological similarity, and is close by in the Solar system. For the large spacecrafts such as Mars rovers, periodic maintenance is necessary to ensure the completion of long-duration exploration missions. In-space wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) provides a potential solution towards sustainable maintenance with onsite repair or additive manufacturing. For in-space manufacturing, low temperature and reduced gravity are two important factors. In this work, WAAM under low temperature and reduced gravity on the Mars was studied through a multi-physics modeling approach. The metal droplet transfer, deposition geometry, thermal dissipation, and other key physics in WAAM were simulated. To validate the modeling approach, an experimental case was conducted on an in-house WAAM platform under the Earth condition.
2:00 PM
Qualification of Low-criticality AM Components in an Expeditionary Environment: Jacob Aljundi1; Jonathan Torres2; Aditya Pulipaka1; 1Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division; 2Bucknell University
The Department of the Navy has interest in the adaptability of additive manufacturing (AM) for custom small volume production. Tactical environments often have limited margin for delays in receiving needed parts. By implementing AM, fleet users can fabricate mission-specific components in expeditionary environments while maintaining minimal delays. Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD) seeks to develop techniques to qualify low-critical AM components. Production of metal components in expeditionary environments requires increased confidence in the mechanical performance of AM materials. Qualification for low-critical AM components should be affordable and simple while still rigorous enough to provide field users with confidence that low-criticality parts will perform as intended. To address the lack of qualification process for low criticality, field generated AM components, the project team seeks to assess existing methods for field qualification of welded structural components, as well as reduced-sized sample test methods such as the small punch test.
2:20 PM
Towards Functionally Graded Materials Using Wire-arc Technology: Andrzej Nycz1; Chris Masuo1; Luke Meyer1; William Carter1; Alex Walters1; Riley Wallace1; Joshua Vaughan1; Suresh Babu1; Vanshika Singh1; Peeyush Nandwana1; Yukinori Yamamoto1; 1Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Wire-arc additive manufacturing is new technology suitable for creating large near net shape metal parts. It is characterized by low-cost hardware, flexibility and is often combined with robotic controls and automation. This work presents the first findings using this technology in functionally graded materials. With the increasing size of parts possible to manufacture with 3D printing, new opportunities arise. Unlike casting or other conventional methods wire-arc additive manufacrruing is not limited to using one material. The flexibility of robotics and automation combined with the robustness of Gas Metal Arc Welding technology can offers locally targeted mechanical properties addressing the performance, productivity, lead time and cost at the same time. This work summarizes the first steps in using more than one feedstock material from hardware, software, and material science point of view.
2:40 PM
NASA Technology Maturation Plan for In-space Manufacturing of Metals: Christopher Roberts1; Frank Ledbetter2; Jennifer Jones3; Zachary Courtright3; Alexander Blanchard3; 1NASA; 2NASA MSFC, CPSS PP&C; 3NASA MSFC
As the International Space Station’s (ISS) life approaches its end, NASA intends to travel back to the Moon and establish a sustainable presence, paving a pathway towards Mars. Current logistics strategies will need to be fundamentally changed to support extended missions, and on-demand manufacturing enables reduced operations cost and increased long term sustainability. The In-Space Manufacturing project at Marshall Space Flight Center is developing additive polymers, metals, and electronics manufacturing technologies to enable a sustainable presence on the Moon and enable long duration transit missions. This presentation will provide an overview of current technologies being developed for demonstration aboard the ISS, the unique constraints when developing AM technologies for spaceflight applications, and a technology maturation plan for in space manufacturing. An emphasis will be placed on the FabLab payload which will demonstrate multi-materials printing, including bound metal additive manufacturing and thick film electronics manufacturing, aboard the ISS in 2025.
3:20 PM
The Effect of Thermal Conditions on Process Defects in Electron Beam Directed Energy Deposition: Ronald Aman1; Alex Kitt1; Dan Ruscitto2; Luke Mohr1; Zach Corey1; Naresh Iyer2; 1EWI; 2GE Global Research
Observing process defects at size scales and with sufficient confidence relevant to qualification efforts has not yet been achieved in metal AM, so non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques are used to detect porosity within material deposited. NDT costs can be significant and may not achieve targeted resolution due to geometry and material limitations. In this work, in-process monitoring of Electron Beam Directed Energy Deposition (EB-DED) is enhanced to include three thermal history conditions; inter-pass, melt pool superheat and trailing bead temperatures. Quality scenarios are applied to simulate various process conditions during EB-DED at three different thermal conditions within production relevant use cases and resultant process defects are characterized via high throughput computed tomography. Defects are spatially and temporally registered to process conditions observed during EB-DED and statistically mapped to thermal and quality scenarios. This work is supported by the US Department of Energy office of Energy Efficiency under award DE-EE0009399.
3:00 PM
Robotic Wire-fed Additive Manufacturing for Forging Industry.: Bishal Silwal1; 1Georgia Southern University
Forging is one of the major manufacturing processes which makes a critical contribution to transportation, aerospace, energy, medical, and countless other sectors. There are different types of forging equipment and processes available and materials such as steel, aluminum can be easily forged. In high productivity, most forging operations use starting blocks and metal-forming dies. A preform is a piece of stock that resembles the final required shape of the forged part and is manufactured in conjunction with the forging process. Robotic wire-fed additive manufacturing has the potential to improve the forging process by fabricating the preform and dies. A case study was performed to analyze the differences between machining and Robotic wire-fed additive manufacturing of forging dies in terms of energy and cost parameters. In addition, a preform was also designed and fabricated using Robootic DED. A medium carbon low alloy steel was selected for this study. The results show significant cost savings can be considered if the wire-fed Robotic deposition technology is implemented.