Weldability Investigation of Aluminium Alloy Parts Additively Manufactured by WAAM (DED-Arc) and PBF-LB

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes are playing a significant role in several industrial sectors such as construction and machine building industries, involving a wide variety of metallic materials. Among these, the AM of aluminium alloys has developed significantly over the last decade, mainly through Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) and Directed Energy Deposition (DED) processes. Despite the many advantages of AM technology, some large or complex products cannot be produced entirely without the use of conventional manufacturing and joining processes, generally for financial or operational reasons. In this way, the ability to join conventionally and additively manufactured components or parts represents a crucial step towards their future use and the consolidation of conventional and additive manufacturing technologies. Despite the growing interest in AM technologies, there is still a significant lack of information on the joining of conventionally and additively manufactured components. The present work evaluated the operational, mechanical and metallurgical aspects of fusion and solid-state welding processes applied to additively manufactured aluminium alloy parts manufactured by WAAM (DED-Arc) and PBF-LB processes. The results show the limitation of joining each of the mentioned materials groups, as well as options for increasing the mechanical properties of the joints, such as selections of filler metal and shielding gas, heat input control, and laser cleaning application prior to welding. The work shows very promising results for industrial applications.