Shape correction in Directed Energy Deposition by feed rate planning

Abstract

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in Additive manufacturing (AM) as a processing method that consumes less material compared to machining. Among AM techniques, Directed energy deposition (DED), which locally melts and solidifies material to continuously stack beads and create three-dimensional structure, has been gaining attention. This method is characterized by low equipment and material costs, and high construction efficiency.

However, one issue with DED is the low shape accuracy of solid structures. Therefore, this study aims to tackle the correction of the shape of build structure by devising a torch feed rate plan, with the goal of smoothing the top surface of the construction. In this research,wire-arc directed energy deposition (DED-arc), a type of DED, was employed. Experiments were conducted to investigate the trends in layer height based on XY positioning, dual-bead on-plate experiments, exploration of suitable feed rate conditions, and evaluation of shape accuracy. In this experiment, there was no improvement in flatness with the proposed feed rate planning method. Parameters such as layer height and width of adjacent beads are crucial for controlling the layer height in solid shapes.