Dimensional characteristics of Ti-6Al-4V thin-walled parts prepared by wire-based multi-laser additive manufacturing in vacuum

Abstract

Purpose

A wire-based additive manufacturing system works with high manufacturing efficiency and low dimensional precision. The purpose of this paper is to study the dimensional characteristics of Ti-6Al-4V thin-walled parts with wire-based multi-laser additive manufacturing in vacuum.

Design/methodology/approach

Wire-based multi-laser additive manufacturing was carried out to understand the effect brought from different parameters. The Ti-6Al-4V thin-walled parts were formed by different height increments, power inputs and inter-layer cooling times in vacuum.

Findings

The result shows that, with the number of layers increment, the layer width of thin-walled part increases gradually in the beginning and stabilizes soon afterward. Height increment, laser power and inter-layer cooling time could affect the energy input to the deposited bead and heat accumulation of thin-walled part. The layer width decreases, while the height increment increases. The increment of laser power could increase the layer width. And, the increment of inter-layer cooling time (more than 5 s) has little effect on the layer width.

Originality/value

The heat dissipation mode of thin-walled parts in vacuum and the influence of different parameters on layer width are explained in this paper. It provides a reference for further understanding and controlling dimension precision of Ti-6Al-4V thin-walled part with wire-based multi-laser additive manufacturing in vacuum. At the same time, it provides a reference for researches of dimensional characteristics in the additive manufacturing industry.

Citation

Du, F., Zhu, J., Ding, X., Zhang, Q., Ma, H., Yang, J., Cao, H., Ling, Z., Wang, G., Duan, X. and Fan, S. (2019), "Dimensional characteristics of Ti-6Al-4V thin-walled parts prepared by wire-based multi-laser additive manufacturing in vacuum", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 849-856. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-08-2018-0207