Automated in situ monitoring and analysis of process signatures and build profiles during wire arc directed energy deposition

Abstract Wire arc directed energy deposition (DED-Arc) is an emerging metal additive manufacturing process to build near-net shaped metallic parts in a layer-by-layer with minimal material wastage. Automated in situ monitoring and fast-responsive analyses of process signatures and deposit profiles during DED-Arc are in ever demand to print dimensionally consistent parts and reduce post-deposition machining. A comprehensive experimental investigation is presented here involving real-time synchronous measurement of arc current, voltage, and the deposit profile using a novel multi-sensor monitoring framework integrated with the DED-Arc set-up. The recorded current–voltage transients are used to estimate the time-averaged arc power, and energy input in real time for an insight of the influence of wire feed rate and printing travel speed on the deposit characteristics. A unique attempt is made to represent the geometric profiles of the single-track deposits in a generalized mathematical form corresponding to a segmented ellipse, which has exhibited the minimum root-mean-square error of 0.03 mm. The dimensional inconsistency of multi-track deposits is evaluated quantitatively in terms of waviness using build profile monitoring and automated estimation, which is found to increase with an increase in step-over ratio and energy input. For the multi-track mild steel deposits, the suitable range of step-over ratio for the minimum surface waviness is observed to lie between 0.6 and 0.65. Collectively, the proposed framework of synchronized process monitoring and real-time analysis provides a pathway to achieve dimensionally consistent and defect-free parts, and highlights the potential for closed-loop control systems for a wider industrial application of DED-Arc.