Relationship between droplet transfer and forming quality in wire arc additive manufacturing of 2319 aluminum alloy

Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is widely studied due to its high deposition rate. However, WAAM samples have poor forming quality compared with other additive manufacturing technologies. The quality of sample formation is directly related to the time required for subsequent mechanical processing. Hence, cycle time can further be reduced by controlling the forming quality. Additionally, better forming quality results in less material wastage. Therefore, the forming quality of samples has always been the focus of WAAM. In this paper, the droplet transfer process of the WAAM is shot with a high-speed camera. This article attempts to explain the WAAM forming process from the perspective of droplet transfer and evaluate the influence mechanism of droplet transfer on the side surface forming quality. High-speed photography is used to extract the molten pool size and droplet transfer frequency. The study also explored the variation of these factors with wire feed speed and number of layers. A two-dimensional droplet transfer model is established based on the results of high-speed photography to study the droplet transfer process. Next, the 3D sample model is built to obtain the roughness of deposition samples. Finally, the relationship between the forming quality and droplet transfer process is studied through the fitting planes. The relationship model of wire feeding speed, molten pool length/droplet transfer frequency, and roughness is obtained. The roughness of the side surface increases with higher wire feed speeds when the wire feed speed is 5.5–6.5 m/min. However, at a wire feed speed of 7.0 m/min, the roughness of the side surface suddenly decreases. The droplet transfer motion rule is then used to explain this change in forming quality.