Optimisation of interpass temperature and heat input for wire and arc additive manufacturing 5A06 aluminium alloy

Undulated surface appearance and inconsistent layer cross-sectional dimensions are two common types of appearance defects, which are formed owing to insufficient heat input and nonlinear time-varying thermal boundary condition of molten pool. Appropriate interpass temperature control and heat input regulations are effective ways to realise and maintain the consistent thermal boundary condition during bottom-up additive manufacturing process. Equivalent heat dissipation factor is used to synthetically characterise the variation of heat dissipation in process of additive manufacturing. Combing with Rosenthal's analytical solution, a theoretical model is developed to optimise interpass temperature and heat input for each layer deposition, so as to realise stable additive manufacturing. Finally a specification for the wire and arc additive manufacture procedure was designed according to the developed model which was verified effectively by manufacturing a wall part. It could also be a process design reference for other kinds of metal additive manufacturing.