WAAM-Setup

• Subject Area: Production Technology
• Term: Funded in 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 558355768

This proposal involves details of a wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) setup, including the necessary accessory instruments and a request to fund 50% of its purchase cost. WAAM is mainly suitable for large-scale manufacturing of metallic structures and components in the construction section. Our current and future research with this setup aims to utilise WAAM as a promising manufacturing technology to develop novel engineering solutions with enhanced structural performance and functionality, higher material efficiency, and decreased environmental impact and costs, which are concerned with both new and existing structures. WAAM technology has several advantages, including a high deposition rate and ease of use, lower start-up and operational costs (as it is in the class of robotic welding machines), and reduced raw material wastage thanks to using wire instead of powder. In addition, new capabilities, such as multi-material printing and simultaneous deposition of multiple wires, are opening up new possibilities for manufacturing advanced structures with tailored mechanical properties and functionality at a minimal cost. Nevertheless, these features and potentials have not yet been fully utilised and adapted for use in construction. Although the mechanical properties of steel samples produced by WAAM have been researched in recent years based on material-level tests, most of the introduced WAAM details lack an in-depth evaluation of structural performance on a component scale, leaving open questions about the reliability of WAAM parts for real-world, large-scale applications. There are various open issues and challenges that call for extensive investigations, including WAAM process design and optimisation, incorporating mechanical and microstructural features in the path planning procedure, Optimisation of structures for WAAM. Additionally, developing and implementing the digital twin of the WAAM process is essential to improve the quality and reliability of the printed parts and move towards the 'first-time-right' concept. Further, there are new opportunities to integrate novel smart materials like shape memory alloys (SMAs) with WAAM technology to develop advanced functional structures with unique properties, including superelasticity (SE), shape memory effect (SME), high damping capacity, and enhance energy absorption and mechanical strength. The WAAM setup proposed herein will significantly support and extend research opportunities at the Institute for Steel Construction (ISC) (and other working groups) for various applications including support structures of offshore wind turbines.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: WAAM-Setup
• Instrumentation Group: 2210 Kunststoffpressen und -spritzgußgeräte
• Applicant Institution: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover
• Leader: Professor Dr. Elyas Ghafoori