Study of Welding Aspects in Parts Manufactured by Additive Manufacturing (AM) and Conventional Process

Abstract

Increasing demands of part complexity and quick realization have paved way for additive manufacturing (AM) to become a powerful technology.  Several hurdles e.g., relatively limited build sizes and higher costs,are on the way to establishing large scale utilization of AM technology as a widespread production process. Part orientation in order to overcome AM process limitations, further complicates the situation as it limits incorporating all features in a single build. Multiple features oriented in different directions call for building multiple parts which need to be joined (welded) in order to perform the intended function. Another requirement arises due to presence of complex features (requiring AM processing) limited only to a particular zone of the component, leaving the remaining area relatively simple which is amenable for conventional manufacturing. Welding process has the potential to overcome these limitations by joining (welded) of an AM part with another part made by a conventional / additive manufacturing process.

An aerospace components (in duplicate) built by AM were required to be permanently joined together and subsequently joined with another component made by conventional manufacturing process (rolled sheet).