Metal Wire Feed Buffer for Stable High-Rate Welding Deposition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for manufacturing titanium or titanium alloy objects through solid freeform fabrication face challenges such as high material waste, long lead times, and inefficiencies in metal deposition due to slippage and deformation of metal wire, which limit production rate and quality.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for delivering metal wire to a welding torch using a cabinet with sensors and rollers to maintain a loop of slack wire, adjusting tension and position, and using motors to control wire feed, ensuring stable and continuous delivery to the plasma arc.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If metal wire is fed directly to the welding torch without a buffer loop, then the wire delivery is simpler and faster, but slippage and deformation occur limiting production rate
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-feeds metal wire into the cabinet to create a buffer loop before welding begins. This preliminary action ensures that wire is already positioned and tensioned correctly, preventing slippage and deformation during the welding process, thereby enabling higher deposition rates with stable wire delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
The buffer loop of slack wire acts as an intermediary between the wire feed mechanism and the welding torch. It absorbs tension variations and prevents direct transmission of mechanical stresses that cause slippage and deformation, ensuring reliable wire delivery at high production rates.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional casting, forging or machining is used to make titanium parts, then the manufacturing process is simpler, but material waste is high and lead times are long
Solution Approach 1:
The system deposits metal wire locally and selectively to build only the required geometry of the titanium part. This additive approach eliminates material removal operations, reducing titanium material waste while maintaining manufacturing simplicity through automated wire feeding and welding processes.
3Manufacturing precision
If welding accuracy is increased to form objects with acceptable dimensions directly, then less machining is needed, but the welding technique accuracy is currently too coarse
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses sensors to detect wire position and tension in real-time, providing feedback to the control system. This enables precise control of wire feed rate and tension, achieving both high deposition rates and acceptable dimensional accuracy without requiring post-machining operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables increased metal deposition rates and improved throughput with distortion-free, near net shaped deposition boundaries, reducing material waste and lead times.
Implementation Method 1
a plasma arc welding torch (PAW torch), such as a plasma transferred arc (PTA) torch... A plasma arc is created by energizing a flowing gas using an electrode
Implementation Method 2
where an electric arc between a consumable electrode, such as a metal wire, and the workpiece heats and melts the metal
Implementation Method 3
A wire tension unit (20) receives the wire from the wire supply spool (50)... a wire feeding device (200) that advances wire from the wire source into the cabinet
Data Source
AI summary
Provided are a systems and methods for continuously providing a metal wire to a welding torch for manufacturing objects by solid freeform fabrication to provide continuous deposition of metal to the freeform object, especially objects made with titanium or titanium alloy wire.