Abstract
Wire and arc-based additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a kind of the additive manufacturing process using the arc welding technology; where the molten metal made by the arc discharge is accumulated successively in this process. A plasma welding method was applied for the additive manufacturing using Ti-6Al-4V wire. A welding torch was attached to a 5-axis machining center and the WAAM process using Ti-6Al-4V was made possible by controlling the movement of X, Y, Z and C axes. During the WAAM process, Ti-6Al-4V should be protected from oxygen because Ti-6Al-4V easily react with oxygen. So, a local shield was used for protecting melting bead from oxygen. The shape of local shield was decided by flow analysis and process parameters for fabrication were revealed. In addition, it was shown that the fabricated object had enough mechanical properties compared with the same bulk material for Vickers hardness test.
