Cargando…

Sustainable Hybrid Manufacturing of AlSi5 Alloy Turbine Blade Prototype by Robotic Direct Energy Layered Deposition and Subsequent Milling: An Alternative to Selective Laser Melting?

Additive technologies enable the flexible production through scalable layer-by-layer fabrication of simple to intricate geometries. The existing 3D-printing technologies that use powders are often slow with controlling parameters that are difficult to optimize, restricted product sizes, and are rela...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dugar, Jaka, Ikram, Awais, Klobčar, Damjan, Pušavec, Franci
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9740583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36500127
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma15238631
_version_ 1784848099909304320
author Dugar, Jaka
Ikram, Awais
Klobčar, Damjan
Pušavec, Franci
author_facet Dugar, Jaka
Ikram, Awais
Klobčar, Damjan
Pušavec, Franci
author_sort Dugar, Jaka
collection PubMed
description Additive technologies enable the flexible production through scalable layer-by-layer fabrication of simple to intricate geometries. The existing 3D-printing technologies that use powders are often slow with controlling parameters that are difficult to optimize, restricted product sizes, and are relatively expensive (in terms of feedstock and processing). This paper presents the development of an alternative approach consisting of a CAD/CAM + combined wire arc additive-manufacturing (WAAM) hybrid process utilizing the robotic MIG-based weld surfacing and milling of the AlSi5 aluminum alloy, which achieves sustainably high productivity via structural alloys. The feasibility of this hybrid approach was analyzed on a representative turbine blade piece. SprutCAM suite was utilized to identify the hybrid-manufacturing parameters and virtually simulate the processes. This research provides comprehensive experimental data on the optimization of cold metal transfer (CMT)–WAAM parameters such as the welding speed, current/voltage, wire feed rate, wall thickness, torch inclination angle (shift/tilt comparison), and deposit height. The multi-axes tool orientation and robotic milling strategies, i.e., (a) the side surface from rotational one-way bottom-up and (b) the top surface in a rectangular orientation, were tested in virtual CAM environments and then adopted during the prototype fabrication to minimize the total fabrication time. The effect of several machining parameters and robotic stiffness (during WAAM + milling) were also investigated. The mean deviation for the test piece’s tolerance between the virtual processing and experimental fabrication was −0.76 mm (approx.) at a standard deviation of 0.22 mm assessed by 3D scanning. The surface roughness definition Sa in the final WAAM pass corresponds to 36 µm, which was lowered to 14.3 µm after milling, thus demonstrating a 55% improvement through the robotic comminution. The tensile testing at 0° and 90° orientations reported fracture strengths of 159 and 161.3 MPa, respectively, while the yield stress and reduced longitudinal (0°) elongations implied marginally better toughness along the WAAM deposition axes. The process sustainability factors of hybrid production were compared with Selective Laser Melting (SLM) in terms of the part size freedom, processing costs, and fabrication time with respect to tight design tolerances. The results deduced that this alternative hybrid-processing approach enables an economically viable, resource/energy feasible, and time-efficient method for the production of complex parts in contrast to the conventional additive technologies, i.e., SLM.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9740583
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97405832022-12-11 Sustainable Hybrid Manufacturing of AlSi5 Alloy Turbine Blade Prototype by Robotic Direct Energy Layered Deposition and Subsequent Milling: An Alternative to Selective Laser Melting? Dugar, Jaka Ikram, Awais Klobčar, Damjan Pušavec, Franci Materials (Basel) Article Additive technologies enable the flexible production through scalable layer-by-layer fabrication of simple to intricate geometries. The existing 3D-printing technologies that use powders are often slow with controlling parameters that are difficult to optimize, restricted product sizes, and are relatively expensive (in terms of feedstock and processing). This paper presents the development of an alternative approach consisting of a CAD/CAM + combined wire arc additive-manufacturing (WAAM) hybrid process utilizing the robotic MIG-based weld surfacing and milling of the AlSi5 aluminum alloy, which achieves sustainably high productivity via structural alloys. The feasibility of this hybrid approach was analyzed on a representative turbine blade piece. SprutCAM suite was utilized to identify the hybrid-manufacturing parameters and virtually simulate the processes. This research provides comprehensive experimental data on the optimization of cold metal transfer (CMT)–WAAM parameters such as the welding speed, current/voltage, wire feed rate, wall thickness, torch inclination angle (shift/tilt comparison), and deposit height. The multi-axes tool orientation and robotic milling strategies, i.e., (a) the side surface from rotational one-way bottom-up and (b) the top surface in a rectangular orientation, were tested in virtual CAM environments and then adopted during the prototype fabrication to minimize the total fabrication time. The effect of several machining parameters and robotic stiffness (during WAAM + milling) were also investigated. The mean deviation for the test piece’s tolerance between the virtual processing and experimental fabrication was −0.76 mm (approx.) at a standard deviation of 0.22 mm assessed by 3D scanning. The surface roughness definition Sa in the final WAAM pass corresponds to 36 µm, which was lowered to 14.3 µm after milling, thus demonstrating a 55% improvement through the robotic comminution. The tensile testing at 0° and 90° orientations reported fracture strengths of 159 and 161.3 MPa, respectively, while the yield stress and reduced longitudinal (0°) elongations implied marginally better toughness along the WAAM deposition axes. The process sustainability factors of hybrid production were compared with Selective Laser Melting (SLM) in terms of the part size freedom, processing costs, and fabrication time with respect to tight design tolerances. The results deduced that this alternative hybrid-processing approach enables an economically viable, resource/energy feasible, and time-efficient method for the production of complex parts in contrast to the conventional additive technologies, i.e., SLM. MDPI 2022-12-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9740583/ /pubmed/36500127 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma15238631 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Dugar, Jaka
Ikram, Awais
Klobčar, Damjan
Pušavec, Franci
Sustainable Hybrid Manufacturing of AlSi5 Alloy Turbine Blade Prototype by Robotic Direct Energy Layered Deposition and Subsequent Milling: An Alternative to Selective Laser Melting?
title Sustainable Hybrid Manufacturing of AlSi5 Alloy Turbine Blade Prototype by Robotic Direct Energy Layered Deposition and Subsequent Milling: An Alternative to Selective Laser Melting?
title_full Sustainable Hybrid Manufacturing of AlSi5 Alloy Turbine Blade Prototype by Robotic Direct Energy Layered Deposition and Subsequent Milling: An Alternative to Selective Laser Melting?
title_fullStr Sustainable Hybrid Manufacturing of AlSi5 Alloy Turbine Blade Prototype by Robotic Direct Energy Layered Deposition and Subsequent Milling: An Alternative to Selective Laser Melting?
title_full_unstemmed Sustainable Hybrid Manufacturing of AlSi5 Alloy Turbine Blade Prototype by Robotic Direct Energy Layered Deposition and Subsequent Milling: An Alternative to Selective Laser Melting?
title_short Sustainable Hybrid Manufacturing of AlSi5 Alloy Turbine Blade Prototype by Robotic Direct Energy Layered Deposition and Subsequent Milling: An Alternative to Selective Laser Melting?
title_sort sustainable hybrid manufacturing of alsi5 alloy turbine blade prototype by robotic direct energy layered deposition and subsequent milling: an alternative to selective laser melting?
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9740583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36500127
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma15238631
work_keys_str_mv AT dugarjaka sustainablehybridmanufacturingofalsi5alloyturbinebladeprototypebyroboticdirectenergylayereddepositionandsubsequentmillinganalternativetoselectivelasermelting
AT ikramawais sustainablehybridmanufacturingofalsi5alloyturbinebladeprototypebyroboticdirectenergylayereddepositionandsubsequentmillinganalternativetoselectivelasermelting
AT klobcardamjan sustainablehybridmanufacturingofalsi5alloyturbinebladeprototypebyroboticdirectenergylayereddepositionandsubsequentmillinganalternativetoselectivelasermelting
AT pusavecfranci sustainablehybridmanufacturingofalsi5alloyturbinebladeprototypebyroboticdirectenergylayereddepositionandsubsequentmillinganalternativetoselectivelasermelting