Preparation and characterization of CMT pulse advance wire arc additive manufacturing Al-Si alloy at the variable positive and negative polarity ratio
摘要
Low process stability and coarse grains are important reasons for the poor forming quality and mechanical properties of wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) specimens. The WAAM of 4043 aluminum alloy was carried out by CMT pulse advance (CMT-PADV) process. By comparing the arc/droplet transition behavior, electrical signal waveform, and microstructure and mechanical properties of the specimens during the deposition process at different positive and negative polarity (EP:EN) ratios, the thermal-force mechanism of droplets and molten pool was analyzed. The effects of EP:EN ratio on the stability of the deposition process and microstructure and mechanical properties were studied. The results show that increasing the proportion of EP-pulse on the basis of expert parameters could significantly improve the arc stability and the flow of molten pool, thereby improving the forming accuracy of the specimens. When the EP:EN ratio is 13:7, the effective width percentage was 86.6%, which was 9.76% higher than that when the EN:EN ratio was 10:10. Under the same heat input, the increase of pulse proportion had a significant optimization effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the specimens. The increase of the pulse proportion effectively refines the grains, increases the proportion of high-angle grain boundaries, and improves the tensile strength. At the same time, through the coordinated control of pulse parameters and heat input, the solidification behavior of the molten pool was regulated, which could strengthen the randomness of grain orientation and reduce the anisotropy. The vertical tensile strength increased to 181 MPa, which was 5.23% higher than that of EN:EN ratio of 10:10.