Design, Integrating and Controlling of Mig-

Based Shaped Metal Deposition System

with Externally Cold Wire Feed in Additive
Layered Manufacturing Technology

Hassan J. Khaudair, Adnan A. Ugla &

Ahmed R. J. Almusawi

Arabian Journal for Science and

Engineering

ISSN 2193-567X

Arab J Sci Eng

DOI 10.1007/s13369-020-05100-6

1 23
Your article is protected by copyright and
all rights are held exclusively by King Fahd
University of Petroleum & Minerals. This e-
offprint is for personal use only and shall not
be self-archived in electronic repositories. If
you wish to self-archive your article, please
use the accepted manuscript version for
posting on your own website. You may
further deposit the accepted manuscript
version in any repository, provided it is only
made publicly available 12 months after
official publication or later and provided
acknowledgement is given to the original
source of publication and a link is inserted
to the published article on Springer's
website. The link must be accompanied by
the following text: "The final publication is
available at link.springer.com”.

1 23
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-020-05100-6

RESEARCH ARTICLE-MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Design, Integrating and Controlling of Mig-Based Shaped Metal

Deposition System with Externally Cold Wire Feed in Additive Layered
Manufacturing Technology
Hassan J. Khaudair1 · Adnan A. Ugla1 · Ahmed R. J. Almusawi2

Received: 28 May 2019 / Accepted: 31 October 2020

© King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals 2021

Abstract
Cold wire feeding plus MIG-based shaped metal deposition process has been proved to be a promising technology capable of
using materials and energies reasonably to manufacture complex large-scale metal components. The shaped metal deposition
with cold wire feeding process is suitable as an alternative technique for traditional manufacturing methods, especially for
complex and large-scale solid parts and it is especially used for structural components in aerospace and the manufacture
and repair of dying/molds. In this paper, a new experimental setup was developed, which consists of a MIG welding source,
an external cold wire feed unit and a 3-axis machine. The paper explains the design, implementation, and stages of control
programing (CAD-CAM) of the developed system. Furthermore, the paper presents the important design steps from the design
database using CAD to the final shape of the part to be configured. The proposed system is capable of producing parts of
different shapes in sizes of more than 450 mm directly from the computer-aided design. Several components are fabricated
with SS309L components to achieve the capability of the advanced proposed system. The results showed that the integrated
system and the program are feasible and flexible and hence can be used to manufacture variously shaped parts.

Keywords Shaped metal deposition · Wire and arc additive manufacturing · Gas metal arc welding · Computer control system

1 Introduction layer for the manufacture of components, rather than tradi-

tional manufacturing techniques that reduce materials” [2].
In recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) based on In this area, it has proved that the wire and arc additive manu-
shaped metal deposition has attracted a lot of attention in facturing (WAAM) process is a promising future technology
the manufacturing field because of its ability to reduce man- for the manufacturing of expensive metal components such
ufacturing costs and reduce manufacturing time. AM has as titanium (Ti–6Al–4V), IN718 and stainless steel. WAAM
shown very significant potential to reduce energy consump- can be used for producing medium to large size parts by
tion, reduce material waste due to machining operations and depositing metals in the form of a series of successive layers,
life-cycle effects [1]. According to the American Society for one on the other [3]. Other researchers investigated experi-
Testing and Materials (ASTM) 52900-2015, AM is defined mentally a comparison between developed SMD techniques
as “the metal deposition process in the form of a layer on a and the traditional processing techniques used in manufac-
turing through calculating the buy to fly (BTF) ratio. They
B Hassan J. Khaudair proved that in SMD techniques, the BTF ratios are much
[email protected] lower, and hence SMD processes reduce the waste materials
Adnan A. Ugla [4, 5].
[email protected] Recently, wires have been used as a successful alterna-
tive to powders because they increase deposition rates, lower
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of
costs and reducing pollution problems. The metal wires that
Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing Technology Research
Group, University of Thi-Qar, Al-Nasiriyah 64001, Iraq are used in the deposition process are heated by the electric
2 arc to fabricate the desired metal components. In general, the
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, College of
Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing Technology Research arc heat source, which is used for melting metals in WAAM
Group, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq processes and can be performed using gas tungsten arc weld-

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

ing (GTAW) [6–8], gas metal arc welding (GMAW) [9–11] nique to produce an RP system includes the slicing, planning,
and plasma arc welding (PAW) [12, 13]. There are two types system applications and the metal transfer control.
of production processes that can be used to get a net-shaped or Lately, additional feeding is used for welding ponds to
near-net-shaped form, which is direct laser deposition (DLD) increase the deposition rate, increase the hardness and reduce
and SMD [14–18]. SMD is a promising alternative to the tra- the time required to produce the parts to be manufactured.
ditional industries used in the manufacture and fabrication Some studies focused on the effects associated with torch
of large, high-cost heavy metal components with complex configuration, the allocation of welding currents and the
engineering because they provide a fast, flexible and cost- high feeding rates. Double wires on the formation of the
effective way compared to traditional industries [3, 19, 20]. weld bead were processed with tandem MIG technology as
Many studies used complex mechanical systems to gener- reported by Ueyama et al. [33]. They showed that the two
ate tool paths, such as 6-axis robots that are connected to the wires were melted by welding currents supplied individu-
two-axis rotary roller system [16, 17, 21], whereas some stud- ally, to be able to control the shape of the weld beads and
ies used another type of robot, which is programed in advance reduce heat input. Yang et al. [34] researched establishing
to attach the deposition tool [6–11, 22–27]. SMD techniques features for GMAW multilayer, single-bead additive layered
can be categorized as wire plus electron beam, wire plus manufacturing through DE-GMAW and provided the correct
laser beam and wire plus arc beam. Wire plus arc additive theoretical basis for its technique. During his study, proposed
manufacturing (WAAM) can be subdivided into three kinds, the DE-GMAW system in contrast to the traditional MIG sys-
namely as tungsten metal inert gas (TIG) + metal wire, inert tem DE-GMAW to maintain the wire melting current regular
gas (MIG) + metal wire and plasma + metal wire as reported and reduce the heat input by adding TIG-bypass torch. The
by Yilmaz and Ugla [28]. use of double wires in a shaped metal deposition process is
SMD which used the MIG welding and wire process pro- still an immature technique, and therefore a deep study is
duce fully dense parts. The parts are manufactured layer by necessary for this field. The current paper aims to study the
layer in a protected environment, and the welding robot is theoretical analysis, practical design and fabrication of the
controlled directly by a computer-aided design model. Gen- computer-controlled system of a three-axis position, which
erally, the surface finish and accuracy are not good compared can be used in SMD techniques, especially with double-wires
to laser and electron beam. However, the components can MIG welding deposition processes. Furthermore, the present
produce up to 1 cubic meter and are deposited up to approxi- paper focuses on controlling steps of the proposed computer-
mately 1 kg per hour. As a result, the speed of the techniques aided double-wire deposition machine (CADWDM).
and the ability to produce parts tightly packed gives SMD
advantages compared to other processes.
To increase deposition rates and reduce heat input, the 2 Designing and Implementing
parts that have been manufactured utilizing SMD-MIG weld- of the CADWDM
ing has gained high popularity. Intensive research efforts have
been carried out on the manufacture of technology, analysis A three-axis system was designed and manufactured to facil-
of the limited elements of heat distribution and the residual itate SMD operations. Initially, a feasible design of the
stress during the metal deposition process and the micro- proposed CADWD machine had been prepared. The design
scopic structure as mechanical properties. Similarly, Spencer had been carried out according to the valid standards. The
et al. [29] showed that, the parts manufactured using 3D- CADWDM is actuated with three stepper motors, which are
GMAW have excellent mechanical properties and that the connected along with x-, y- and z-directions. The maximum
parts or structures manufactured are completely dense with working volume is (450 × 750 × 200) mm3. Machine design
a minimum of impurities. Moreover, the parts or metal parts carried out using the AutoCAD program and then it was sim-
manufactured by the GMAW process have many advantages, ulated through the ANSYS workbench program. The body
including excellent mechanical performance and high den- of the machine was designed to be of aluminum alloy mate-
sity [30]. Besides that, extensive research efforts have been rial due to its lightweight and good corrosion resistance,
executed on the control of SMD technology. The geometry whereas the shafts and screws designed to be of stainless
prediction of beads in robotic MIG-based on additive layer steel. The properties of the material used in the machine
manufacturing was controlled using a second-order regres- were taken from the ANSYS workbench data program as
sion analysis method of the second and neural networks [9]. shown in Table 1. Figure 1 presents the main steps followed
Thus, depending on the developed models, the bead geometry to fabricate the CADWDM completely.
could be expected and enhanced with various control vari-
ables, whereas the works reported in the literature [31, 32]
pointed out to use of the MIG process as a deposition tech-

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

Table 1 Physical and

mechanical properties of the Properties Aluminum alloy Structural steel Stainless steel
used materials
Specific heat (mJ kg−1 C−1 ) 2.77e − 006 4.34e + 005 4.8e + 005
Density (kg mm−3 ) 2.75e + 005 7.85e − 006 7.75e − 006
Yield strength (MPa) 280 250 207
Ultimate strength (MPa) 310 460 586

Fig. 1 Sketches and photographs

illustrate a the dimensions of the
CADWD machine, b isometric
view of the designer model,
c isometric view of the designer
model in ANSYS workbench
program and d experimental
CADWDM system

2.1 Loads and Static Structure Condition 2.2 Mesh Size

In the designing step of the proposed CADWDM system, Fin meshing has been done with this design, element size
most of the problems encountered in the design process were taken as default and size function as adaptive as shown in
taken in mind, i.e., the stress concentration in the manufac- Fig. 3.
tured parts and their impact on the accuracy of the machine.
Therefore, a specific load was taken, which is equivalent to
the weight of the deposition torches and put in different areas 3 Experimental Setup and Materials
in the machine to identify the stresses produced as well as
the resulting deformation. The load applied in the fixture is 3.1 Integrating the CADWDM System (System
20 N and in gantry is 100 N as shown in Fig. 2. The load has Equipment)
been applied in a different positions to simulate the system
to find the system’s ability to withstand the stress concen- The developed CADWDM system consists of the integrated
tration areas and strain, in addition to the deformation in units as illustrated in Fig. 4. The 3-axes machine had been
the system. The machine safety factor is 15. While the yield designed and manufactured to facilitate the shaped metal
stress of the machine is 280 MPa, the allowable stress of the deposition process. At first, practical design for the proposed
machine can be obtained by dividing the yield strength by the CADWD machine has been prepared. The current design was
machine safety factor (280 Mpa/15  18.67 Mpa). Therefore, done using the CAD program and using the skilled industrial
the device is in safe side design because the maximum stress experience by the applicable standards. The CADWDM sys-
obtained is 11.3 MPa at the previously mentioned loads. tem consists of machine body, deposition tool (DT), gantry
which holds the deposition tool (DT) (welding torch and cold
wire) and moves them in 3-axis by motors, worktable and
adjustable fixtures that are used to carry torches and cold feed

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

Fig. 2 Show the compressive force applied in different positions

Fig. 3 Mesh details using ASYS

R 17.1

wire. DT is utilized to make attaching between the MIG weld- ing machine can produce DC-MIG arc in reverse polarity.
ing torch and the cold wire feed come through controlling the These adjustable fixtures enable us to change the positions
external wire feed device. The melting heat results from the of torches and cold feed wires with each other as shown in
arc heat source, which connected to the MIG Lincoln weld- (Fig. 1a, b) describe the primary design of the CADWDM,

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

Fig. 4 Primary unit of the CADWDM system

3.2 Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

The computer program was built to design a pattern for the

experiment using program code, which is a MATLAB envi-
ronment software functions and a graphical user interface
(GUI) is designed as a CAD, interactive panel, and the user
defines main points of the shape, layer height and the num-
ber of layers. Afterward, a translational transform between
points is created (X–Y path), the layers are built by increase
Z axes by layer height for the X–Y path. The solid model
is expressed as points (x, y, z). The machine is represented
by 3 axes Cartesian robot for simulation and visualization,
from solid model points, the Cartesian trajectory is gener-
ated (x, y, z) and (ẋ, ẏ, ż). That means the points of motion
Fig. 5 A general hardware structure of the CADWDM system and velocities are specified, then the machining process is
animated in a graphical procedure. The pattern points can
be saved and can be loaded on the machine user interface
program for experiment implementation. Figure 6 represents
which was then improved during the manufacture of parts. the computer-aided design (CAD) program.
The control unit was developed and programed just only to
control movements of the CADWDM axes. All these parts
were fabricated and then assembled into the final form of 3.3 Hardware Integrating Computer-Aided
CADWDM after the completion of manufacturing processes Manufacture (CAM)
to appear in Fig. 1d, which illustrates the general view of the
CADWDM system. The general hardware structure of the The CADWDM control system contains an innovative pro-
developed CADWDM system is shown in Fig. 5. gram created through the MATLAB program. MATLAB

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

Fig. 6 Block diagram of the

SMD system, PC interface
program, control units and the
CADWD machine

is a high-level technical computing language, and it is an of the machine and can load a sequential program for the
interactive environment for algorithm development, data machine.
visualization. The MATLAB is used because of the system The control unit is constructed to receive commands from
requirement to work at the online process that is able by computer programs and to send feedback to the current posi-
MATLAB real-time signal processing. The program allows tion of machine axes, the connection between the control
us to draw a CAD model for the part in MATLAB rather than unit and the computer is by USB port. It has an open-source
utilizing commercial CAD packages. simple microcontroller board (Arduino Mega 2560), digital
A CAD drawing can be generated in such a way as to micro-step motor driver and power supply. The microcon-
identify the key points of the geometry necessary to give the troller is programed by C++ language, the program is written
main angles and sharp edges of the part, and the program can to receive a high-level machine code form PC and convert it
complete the component creation in a point-to-point way. digital binary form to control the digital step motor driver.
Simultaneously, the current program divides the part that The digital step motor driver is a two-phase step motor driver,
was drawn by the CAD program directly from the base layer it generates a micro-step up to 51200 steps/rev and an output
toward the top based on the thickness of the painted layer and current from 2.1 to 5.6 A.
the number of layers. The current CADWDM system used the Before starting the actual deposition process in the CAD-
online programing method via three-dimensional CAD data WDM integrated system, the pathways must be simulated and
for components to create and simulate CADWDM software. tested in the control program to verify movements and their
Online programing has been used because it is available at orientation as they apply to the equipment without errors.
a low cost compared to off-line programing(OLP)software Figure 8 shows the overall control of the CADWDM sys-
packages, especially for small size components. tem. The CADWDM system was created using 3D Cartesian
The system constructed by the PC interface program, con- coordinates (x, y, z) with a point-to-point method. These
trol unit, and CADWD machine. The block diagram for the points are then sent to the part of the CAM, draw shapes,
system is shown in Fig. 6. The PC interface program is a user wall constructs, selection the trajectory, and then the system
interface panel, it is designed with the graphical user interface is animated in the graphical procedure. CADWDM path was
development environment (GUIDE) of MATLAB® . The PC created through MATLAB. The advanced CAD module can
interface program is a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) perform the following activities through the MATLAB pro-
program as shown in Fig. 7, it’s used for controlling machine gram.
torch movements relative to machine workspace, the program
has received the CAD output file and sent it to low-level
• The SMD method has been used to create the manufactured
machine program (the brain of machine C++ code), so CAM
parts; the key points were inserted within the permitted
program reads and follows CAD program and change it to
area of the coordinate axis.
commands that will send to the microcomputer (Arduino)
• Slicing the part to be fabricated into several layers by divid-
inside the machine (which has low-level machine code) and
ing the height into multilayer segments;
is exchanged the step of the process with the control unit
• Creating the paths by splitting the CAD parts into ISO line
to satisfy the required transportation for machine torch. The
paths.
user can control the machine manually by JOG, can apply
• Selecting the best path trajectory, which, is either line or
machine zeroing, can monitor the change of the parameters
zigzag program;

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

Real manufacture part

CAD Module (PC-interface window)

Integrated deposition system (CADWD-

Trajectory process Machine)

Fig. 7 a PC interface program, b structure of the control unit for CADWDM

CAM Module (PC-interface window) Control unit circuit

Fig. 8 Shows overall control of the CADWDM system

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

Table 2 The laboratory

chemical composition of the Materials C %Si Mn S P Mo Ni Cr Cu Fe
filler material and the substrate
Wire 0.03% 0.9% 1.3% – – 0.1% 12.5% 24% 0.1% REM
Substrate 0.1 0.03–0.15 0.2–0.45 0.04 0.04 – – – – REM
Max

Table 3 constant Parameters used to generate a process model in the 1.2 mm diameter was a flux cord wire stainless steel 309
CADWDM system L. Its grade was selected according to AWS A5.22 speci-
Parameter Unit Values fication, so the wire grade is “E309LTI-1/T1-4” [36] with
automatic protection due to its chemical composition. Mild
Current A 160
steel having a dimension of 150 mm × 100 mm × 8 mm was
Travel speed mm/s 3
employed as the substrate to deposit the weld beads. The
Wire ratio(W.R) (W.F1 mm min−1 / mm min−1 4 chemical composition in wt% of the filler metal wire and
/W.F2 )
substrate is shown in Table 2. Experiments were performed
Stick out mm 15
using the process parameter combination described in Table 3
Arc length mm 2
to produce a 120 mm vertical wall and another shape as shown
Feeding angle (α) ° 30°
in Table 4. The selection of straight walls, zigzag wall, and
Wire feed come from the welding machine (3 m/min) closed square, is important because it simulates the kind of
Cold wire feed comes from an external nozzle device (2 m/min)
construction that will be required to manufacture thin-walled
sections commonly used in structural aerospace applications.
• Choose an appropriate deposition strategy which is either
a discrete or continuous strategy;
• Finally, the animated process created to find out if errors 4 Results and Discussions
exist during the movement process.
4.1 Deformation, Stresses and Safety Factor

3.4 Experimental Setup and Material Used All the results were obtained for deformation and stress in
to Develop the Process Model (MPa) by analyzing the ANSYS program as shown in Fig. 9.
The results were analyzed in the static structure analysis case
The developed CADWD machine is used with other parts of in different positions.
the SMD cell to build an integrated work cell. Flexibility to From Fig. 9, it is clear that the highest deformation occurs
utilize with a wide range of materials like steel, stainless steel, in the fixture area because it is exposed to the welding torch
high strength steels and aluminum. The MIG torch distance and its manufacturer of the aluminum material as in Fig. 9.
from tip to the workpiece is recommended between (12 and The deformation has been calculated for more than one area
20) mm [18, 35]. The angle of the main torch MIG torch is to find the highest deformation of the machine when exposed
90°, the angle between the nozzle cold wire feed (CWF) and to the load resulting from the welding torch, while the shafts
the workpiece is recommended 30°–55° as shown in Fig. 9. and the screws are fewer deformations because they are
The metal deposition process by MIG welding is carried made of stainless steel compared to aluminum as shown in
out by the electric arc generated between the consumable Fig. 9a–c. In addition to the deformation, the concentrated
electrode and the substrate. The consumable electrode of stresses that were exposed to the machine were calculated in

Table 4 Deposition process parameters and the resulting geometries of four components
Component Deposition process parameters Geometries Feeding direction

Current A Travel speed mm/s WFR Wall width (mm) Wall height (mm) No. of layers

Straight wall 160 2 1.5 7 90 30 Forward and rear

Spiral square 160 2 1.5 7 18 6 Forward and rear
Zigzag square 160 2 1.5 7 18 6 Forward and rear
Bridge wall 160 2 1.5 7 21 7 Forward and rear
zigzag wall 160 2 1.5 7 21 7
Height of layer 3 mm

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

Fig. 9 Shows a, b and c total deformation, e, d and f equivalent (von-mises) stress

more than one location to know the stresses on the shafts and addition to the shafts as shown in Fig. 9d–f. Moreover, the
screws due to the load resulting from the welding torch and safety factor was calculated for the machine designed when
the gantry. The results showed that the greatest stresses were exposed to a load higher than the load used and was within
placed on the screws as the responsibility for the motion in the save side aspect of the user’s design as shown in Fig. 10.

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

programing is chosen because it is a nonexpensive program

compared to an OLP package, especially for small size prod-
ucts. However, the online one is less complicated compared
to OLP. Before implementing the program in CADWDM, a
test of the deposition pathways in the simulated machine is
carried out to ensure that movements and paths are applicable
and implemented by the device.
The CADWD machine is symbolized by 3 axes Cartesian
robot and hence has more than numerical control by the use
of high-level programing. Cartesian trajectories are created
(x, y, z) and (ẋ, ẏ, ż) which means that points of motion and
velocities are specified, after that the machine movements are
to be animated in a graphical process as shown in Fig. 12.

4.3 Path Planning Strategies (PPS)

Fig. 10 Demonstrates the safety factor
In the current work, the CADWDM developed system has
Developing of 3D model great flexibility that allows the user to address the problems
faced in the path planning processes of shapes that con-
tain overlays and curves. The CADWDM control system is
Planning and slicing
designed to operate with an open-source system that allows
DT to place it and move in the desired path accurately. More-
choosing of appropriate Design welding path and process over, the CADWDM system allows the operator to precisely
deposition parameters parameters control input parameters during the metal deposition process,
so the operator can adjust the process immediately and auto-
matically. The CADWDM system allows the manufacturing
Establishment of CADWDM
programming of hollow and filled features according to the main types of
program path patterns, zigzag and spiral style. The deposition
process begins with the upper right side and completes the
stacking upward of beads layer by
layer outline of the composition of the part and then uses either
spiral or zigzag movements to finish the filling of the first
layer of the deposit, then reversing the direction successive
Fig. 11 The schema of the intelligent CADWDM system
deposited layers, etc.
Figure 13a–c show the SMD process by CADW system
4.2 Post-processing of the CADWDM System path procedure utilized to create the filling area of the raster
square part, and Fig. 13d shows the real manufactured part
The CADWDM system includes the development of a 3D by CADWD machine. Figure 14a, c illustrate another path
object depended on the CAD drawing, planning and slic- pattern utilized to create this part and Fig. 14d refers to the
ing of patterns in standard thickness layers. The file that is real manufactured part. The shapes were deposited on the
drawn by CAD is imported or brought to the online pro- bottom with a thickness of 7 mm. The first pass is performed
graming technique. Therefore, the desired geometry to be at relatively slow travel speeds to overcome the high cooling
classified according to the CAD specification is sliced into rate and bring the substrate and deposited bead to a suitable
layers with a regular height. The deposition process was temperature for avoiding the lack of fusion (LOF) defects.
created using an interface between the deposition tool and It can be seen that if the deposition directions are in one
modeling data. After validating the model, it is sliced from direction (i.e., forward and backward), the cumulative error
bottom to top with regular layer thickness. Process parame- is important at the beginning and end of the deposited parts,
ters were selected depending on the experiments performed due to the flow of molten metal. This error usually occurs
as shown in Fig. 11. The current CADWDM system, online when using one direction in deposition process. The reason
programing technique used 3D CAD data of the part to cre- belong to the fact that the starting region of the part will be
ate and simulation of CADWDM programs. Usually, off-line with high height as compared with end region for the same
programing) OLP (will consume a lot of time and needs part. This is because the part exposure to short time at starting
high-precision, level-of-the-line programing [37]. So, online zone as comparison to the end zone.

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

Fig. 12 Schema shows the

processes within the CADWDM Set:
interface program H : Height of
Start Set: Layers
Create Shape
CAD Drawing points of shape ( OR)
L : Number of
Layers

Save result
Generate Test by
Construct wall paths (File of
Trajectory for Animate
for shape points with
motion motion
time)

Connect Set Zero

Set Speed of
Machine Position by Load Saved file
operation
(CAM) JOG

RUN (motion
End
in real system)

Fig. 13 Raster path pattern for filling square part: a zigzag pattern, b, c the CAD drawing and layer slices and d) real manufacture part deposited
by MIG-SMD method (E309LTI-1/T1-4)

Fig. 14 Spiral path pattern for filling square part: a spiral pattern, b, c the CAD drawing and layer slices and d real manufacture part deposited by
the MIG-SMD method (E309LTI-1/T1-4)

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

Fig. 15 Some parts are deposited (straight feature)

To reduce and eliminate these defects, the reverse trend Therefore, the final finished parts need to be removed by
(front and rear feeding directions) was considered as shown conventional or mechanical termination methods.
in Fig. 14d.

4.4 The Capabilities of CADWDM and Limitations 5 Conclusions

Due to the nature of the current work system, which is a Shaped metal deposition by GMAW was developed by
direct and open-source control system, it all manufacturing adding a new technique, cold wire feeding and has been ver-
the features of the stiffened panel features and curves, without ified to produce many different metal components. Various
difficulty. Several experiments have been carried out. During experiments were conducted to study the process and to test
these experiments, many parts were deposition sold hollow the process parameters. Various geometric shapes such as the
area, and many of the features were the spiral and zigzag straight wall, the closed square, zigzag and the bridge shape
shape. Also, complex curves and angles have been formed have been deposited. Besides, a computer program was writ-
to verify system readiness and path planning strategies as ten for the construction of paths for walls and other forms,
shown in Fig. 15. describing this programing as well as describing the steps of
The developed CADWDM system has some limitations, controlling this work. The main conclusions were summa-
for example, this industrial technique cannot produce com- rized as follows:
plex parts containing internal/side holes or some components
with millimeters because of the physical nature of the con- 1. A new type of SMD system is designed and manufactured
trol system. Also, the component product surface is curved in the current work. The results show that the machine has
or malleable due to mosaic coverage of the original CAD sufficient capacity to perform the work during the tests.
model and shredding during the SMD process. The resulting The ANSYS analysis of the machine was performed on
MIG-SMD (CADWDM) components are therefore less than the total deformation and stresses as well as the safety
conventional manufacturing processes with surface quality. factor and the results showed that the system is within the

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

safe design. This means that the design and construction 8. Wang, J.F.; Sun, Q.J.; Wang, H.; Liu, J.P.; Feng, J.C.: Effect of
of CADWDM are acceptable and feasible. location on microstructure and mechanical properties of additive
layer manufactured Inconel 625 using gas tungsten arc welding.
2. The CADWDM control system is developed in open-loop Mater. Sci. Eng., A 676, 395–405 (2016)
technology, so the parameters of the deposition process, 9. Xiong, J.; Zhang, G.; Hu, J.; Wu, L.: Bead geometry prediction
including deposition rate and welding power should be for robotic GMAW-based rapid manufacturing through a neural
known prior (no feedback is used) network and a second-order regression analysis. J. Intell. Manuf.
25(1), 157–163 (2014)
3. The online programing technique was utilized since 10. Spencer, J.D.; Dickens, P.M.; Wykes, C.M.: Rapid prototyping of
it is more appropriate for CADWDM in addition to metal parts by three-dimensional welding. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng.
being less complex than the off-line programing method. Part B J. Eng. Manuf. 212(3), 175–182 (1998)
Simulation and visualization process has been for the 11. Xiong, J.; Lei, Y.; Chen, H.; Zhang, G.: Fabrication of inclined
thin-walled parts in multi-layer single-pass GMAW-based addi-
experiments by using axes Cartesian robot so to make tive manufacturing with flat position deposition. J. Mater. Process.
sure that the paths and movements for CADWDM are Technol. 240, 397–403 (2017)
correct and without problems. 12. Lin, J.J.; Lv, Y.H.; Liu, Y.X.; Xu, B.S.; Sun, Z.; Li, Z.G.; Wu, Y.X.:
4. The post-processing program satisfies the requirements Microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of Ti–6Al–4V
wall deposited by pulsed plasma arc additive manufacturing. Mater.
of the SMD technique in the solid dense part fabrica- Des. 102, 30–40 (2016)
tion. Only MATLABat is used for drawing, slicing and 13. Lin, J.; Lv, Y.; Liu, Y.; Sun, Z.; Wang, K.; Li, Z.; et al.:
machining code generation. No need to use multiple soft- Microstructural evolution and mechanical property of Ti–6Al–4V
ware such as AutoCAD, solid work and STL converter. wall deposited by continuous plasma arc additive manufacturing
without post heat treatment. J. Mech. Behav. Biomed. Mater. 69,
5. Machine driving code (low-level program) is also created 19–29 (2017)
for requiring operation so it is not a ready program like 14. Strano, G.; Hao, L.; Evans, K.E.; Everson, R.M.: Optimization of
driver codes of CNC, therefore, open-source code can be quality and energy consumption for additive layer manufacturing
modified and developed for new features. processes (2010).
15. Voice, W: Net-shape processing applied to aero-engine compo-
6. In the present work, the authors used for the first time nents. Rolls-Royce Plc Derby (United Kingdom). http://www.rto.
the E309LTI-1/T1-4 as filler metal in the SMD process. nato.int/abstracts.asp (2006)
This filler metal is a flux cord wire, which has automatic 16. Baufeld, B.; Biest, O.V.D.; Gault, R.: The microstructure of
protection and therefore eliminates the inert gas and this Ti–6Al–4V specimens produced by shaped metal deposition. Int.
J. Mater. Res. 100(11), 1536–1542 (2009)
facilitates the additive manufacturing process 17. Baufeld, B.; Van der Biest, O.: Mechanical properties of
Ti–6Al–4V specimens produced by shaped metal deposition. Sci.
Acknowledgments This work was done at Thi-Qar University/Faculty Technol. Adv. Mater. 10(1), 015008 (2009)
of Engineering, Al-Nasiriyah, Iraq. 18. Clark, D.; Bache, M.R.; Whittaker, M.T.: Shaped metal deposition
of a nickel alloy for aero engine applications. J. Mater. Process.
Technol. 203(1–3), 439–448 (2008)
19. Baufeld, B.; van der Biest, O.; Gault, R.; Ridgway, K: Man-
ufacturing Ti–6Al–4V components by shaped metal deposition:
References microstructure and mechanical properties. In: IOP Conference
Series: Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 26, no. 1,
1. Huang, R.; Riddle, M.; Graziano, D.; Warren, J.; Das, S.; Nim- p. 012001. IOP Publishing (2011)
balkar, S.; et al.: Energy and emissions saving potential of additive 20. Escobar-Palafox, G.; Gault, R.; Ridgway, K.: Robotic manufactur-
manufacturing: the case of lightweight aircraft components. J. ing by shaped metal deposition: state of the art. Ind. Robot Int. J.
Clean. Prod. 135, 1559–1570 (2016) 38(6), 622–628 (2011)
2. Frazier, W.E.: Metal additive manufacturing: a review. J. Mater. 21. Escobar-Palafox, G.; Gault, R.; Ridgway, K: Preliminary empirical
Eng. Perform. 23(6), 1917–1928 (2014) models for predicting shrinkage, part geometry and metallurgical
3. Baufeld, B.; Van der Biest, O.; Gault, R.: Additive manufacturing of aspects of Ti–6Al–4V shaped metal deposition builds. In: IOP Con-
Ti–6Al–4V components by shaped metal deposition: microstruc- ference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 26, no. 1,
ture and mechanical properties. Mater. Des. 31, S106–S111 (2010) p. 012002. IOP Publishing (2011)
4. Ding, D.; Pan, Z.; Cuiuri, D.; Li, H.; Larkin, N.: Adaptive path 22. Heralić, A.; Christiansson, A.K.; Hurtig, K.; Ottosson, M.; Lennart-
planning for wire-feed additive manufacturing using medial axis son, B.: Control design for automation of robotized laser metal-wire
transformation. J. Clean. Prod. 133, 942–952 (2016) deposition. IFAC Proc. Vol. 41(2), 14785–14791 (2008)
5. Ugla, A.A.; Yilmaz, O.; Almusawi, A.R.: Development and control 23. Almeida, P.S.; Williams, S.: Innovative process model of
of shaped metal deposition process using tungsten inert gas arc heat Ti–6Al–4V additive layer manufacturing using cold metal transfer
source in additive layered manufacturing. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. (CMT). In: Proceedings of the Twenty-First Annual International
Part B J. Eng. Manuf. 232(9), 1628–1641 (2018) Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, the University of Texas at
6. Bonaccorso, F.; Cantelli, L.; Muscato, G.: Arc welding con- Austin, Austin, TX, USA (2010)
trol for shaped metal deposition process. IFAC Proc. Vol. 44(1), 24. Brandl, E.; Michailov, V.; Viehweger, B.; Leyens, C.: Deposition of
11636–11641 (2011) Ti–6Al–4V using laser and wire, part I: microstructural properties
7. Yilmaz, O.; Ugla, A.A.: Microstructure characterization of of single beads. Surf. Coat. Technol. 206(6), 1120–1129 (2011)
SS308LSi components manufactured by GTAW-based additive 25. Antonysamy, A.A.: Microstructure, texture and mechanical prop-
manufacturing: shaped metal deposition using pulsed current arc. erty evolution during additive manufacturing of Ti6Al4V alloy for
Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 89(1–4), 13–25 (2017)

123
 Author's personal copy
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering

aerospace applications. Doctoral dissertation, The University of 32. Lin, H.L.: The use of the Taguchi method with grey relational
Manchester (United Kingdom) (2012) analysis and a neural network to optimize a novel GMA welding
26. Muscato, G.; Spampinato, G.; Cantelli, L.: A closed-loop welding process. J. Intell. Manuf. 23(5), 1671–1680 (2012)
controller for a rapid manufacturing process. In: IEEE International 33. Ueyama, T.; Ohnawa, T.; Tanaka, M.; Nakata, K.: Effects of torch
Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, configuration and welding current on weld bead formation in high
2008. ETFA 2008, pp. 1080–1083. IEEE (2008) speed tandem pulsed gas metal arc welding of steel sheets. Sci.
27. Ding, J.: Thermo-mechanical analysis of wire and arc additive man- Technol. Weld. Joining 10(6), 750–759 (2005)
ufacturing process (2012) 34. Yang, D.; He, C.; Zhang, G.: Forming characteristics of thin-wall
28. Yilmaz, O.; Ugla, A.A.: Shaped metal deposition technique in addi- steel parts by double electrode GMAW based additive manufactur-
tive manufacturing: a review. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part B J. Eng. ing. J. Mater. Process. Technol. 227, 153–160 (2016)
Manuf. 230(10), 1781–1798 (2016) 35. Xiong, J.; Li, Y.; Li, R.; Yin, Z.: Influences of process parameters
29. Spencer, J.D.; Dickens, P.M.: Production of metal parts fea- on surface roughness of multi-layer single-pass thin-walled parts in
turing heavy sections using 3D welding. In: Proceedings of GMAW-based additive manufacturing. J. Mater. Process. Technol.
First National Conference on Rapid Prototyping and Tooling 252, 128–136 (2018)
Research, pp. 127–137. London: Mechanical Engineering Publi- 36. AWS Code Section II Part C, 1989, Welding Rods, Electrodes, and
cations (1995) Filler Metals
30. Mughal, M.P.; Fawad, H.; Mufti, R.A.: Three-dimensional finite- 37. Pan, Z.; Polden, J.; Larkin, N.; Van Duin, S.; Norrish, J.: Recent
element modelling of deformation in weld-based rapid prototyping. progress on programming methods for industrial robots. Robot.
Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part C J. Mech. Eng. Sci. 220(6), 875–885 Comput. Integr. Manuf. 28(2), 87–94 (2012)
(2006)
31. Zhang, Y.; Chen, Y.; Li, P.; Male, A.T.: Weld deposition-based
rapid prototyping: a preliminary study. J. Mater. Process. Technol.
135(2–3), 347–357 (2003)

123