A novel methodology to manufacture complex metallic sudden overhangs in weld-deposition based additive manufacturing

Abstract

Amongst various additive manufacturing (AM) techniques for realizing the complex metallic objects, weld-deposition (arc)-based directed energy AM technique is attaining more focus over commercially available powder bed fusion techniques. This is because of the capability of high deposition rates, high power and material utilization, simpler setup and less initial investment of arc-based AM. Nevertheless, realization of sudden overhanging features through arc-based weld-deposition techniques is still a challenging task because of the necessity of support structures. This paper aims to describe a novel methodology for producing complex metallic objects with sudden overhangs without using supports.