Abstract:
According to ASTM, additive manufacturing is defined as a process of joining materials capable of producing objects from a 3D model in which layer-by-layer deposition occurs. This process is revolutionizing the manufacturing industry due to its ability to obtain almost finished products in a short time with almost no material waste. In this work, the WAAM - Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing process is being used, which is based on the fundamental concepts of the automated welding process, such as Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW). The synthesis of the material used a gas flow of 15 L/min with a composition of 97.5%v Ar and 2.5%v CO2 and 316L stainless steel wires with a diameter of 1.2mm that are deposited layer by layer and a solution with Al2O3 and isopropyl alcohol was also prepared, which was applied with the help of a brush between the deposited layers. Welding tests were carried out with different voltage values, welding speed and wire speed and thus defined those that produced a weld bead with the best visual aspect, which were the following parameters: voltage of 21V, wire speed of 11.6 cm/s and welding speed of 900mm/s and 1200mm/s. With these values, the best deposition strategy for the manufacture of the product was defined. The following tests were carried out: tensile strength tests according to ASTM E8 in different directions to evaluate anisotropy, hardness tests, X-ray diffractometry in the different weld layers and in the cross sections to analyze the phase distribution and the crystallographic texture generated in the process and a microstructural analysis was also performed with SEM images and optical microscopy.