About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium (SFF Symp 2025)
|
| Symposium
|
2025 Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium (SFF Symp 2025)
|
| Presentation Title |
Low-Cost Melt Pool Monitoring for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing |
| Author(s) |
Steven Grant Wilmoth, Bradley Jared, Dustin Wagner, Andrej Nycz |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Bradley Jared |
| Abstract Scope |
Wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) enables significant time and material savings for producing large-scale metal components but faces challenges in maintaining geometry due to deposition variability. Work has developed a low-cost melt pool monitoring system utilizing custom hardware, open-source software and an inexpensive optical camera to capture key deposition characteristics. The system was evaluated across a range of experiments to investigate correlations between melt pool behavior and process conditions. A neutral density filter and low exposure settings mitigate arc flash, allowing clear visualization of features such as the melting wire, solidification zone and arc flash. Captured frames were processed with an open-source machine learning model to extract and quantify deposition features during deposition. Analysis of the features against experimental changes demonstrated that variations in the data could predict deposition behavior shifts. The presented approach lays the groundwork for real-time, low-cost quality monitoring in WAAM processes. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: Post-meeting proceedings |