About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 AWS Professional Program
|
| Symposium
|
2025 AWS Professional Program
|
| Presentation Title |
New High Efficiency Shielded (HES) Wire Arc (WA) Directed Energy Deposition (DED) Process for On-Board & Expeditionary Applications |
| Author(s) |
Logan McNeil, Michael Carney, Dennis Harwig, Josh Shoemaker, Stacey Smith, Zane Bogosian |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Logan McNeil |
| Abstract Scope |
Wire arc (WA) directed energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing (AM) is considered a strategic capability for manufacturing and repairing components on-board ships and in expeditionary applications. A key problem with WA-DED processes under expeditionary conditions is sourcing, transporting, and storage of high purity shielding gases. Shielding gases required to successfully operate WA-DED systems consist of harder to reclaim and source gases. There is a strategic need to develop a gas-less or high efficiency shielded (HES) WA process for applications to either use new shielding gas compositions of easier to source gases or reduce the amount of shielding gas to minimize storage and sourcing requirements.
The goal of this project was to develop HES DED AM process technology for 316L stainless steel. The project evaluated commercially available off the shelf (COTS) and new formulations of self-shielded and gas-shielded flux cored arc consumables, designed and developed a new innovative shielding apparatus, and demonstrated the preferred procedures using representative procedure qualification requirements. In addition, robotic “hybrid” DED and spindle-based interpass cleaning procedures were developed to ensure soundness with the preferred HES FCA DED process. The combination of process, apparatus, electrode, and robotic procedure workflows were demonstrated on a variety of demonstration geometries.
The project evaluated the effects of shielding flow rate on the quality of 316L DED deposits for both single-pass and multi-pass per layer features. Evaluation of gas shielded (GS) FCA using COTS GS-FCA consumables and a new HES apparatus showed that shielding flow rate reduced to 4 CFH met all requirements of MIL-STD-2035A Class 1 criteria. A DED propeller was demonstrated using the hybrid DED and interpass cleaning workflows. Techniques developed from this program have been demonstrated to reduce gas flow by up to 50%. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Undecided |