Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing of Mn4Ni2CrMo Steel: Comparison of Mechanical and Metallographic Properties of PAW and GMAW

Wire arc additive manufacturing, WAAM, is a popular wire-feed additive manufacturing technology that creates components through the deposition of material layer-by-layer. WAAM has become a promising alternative to conventional machining due to its high deposition rate, environmental friendliness and cost competitiveness. In this research work, a comparison is made between two different WAAM technologies, GMAW (gas metal arc welding) and PAW (plasma arc welding). Comparative between processes is centered in the main variations while manufacturing Mn4Ni2CrMo steel walls concerning geometry and process parameters maintaining the same deposition ratio as well as the mechanical and metallographic properties obtained in the walls with both processes, in which the applied energy is significantly different. This study shows that acceptable mechanical characteristics are obtained in both processes compared to the corresponding forging standard for the tested material, values are 23% higher for UTS and 56% for elongation in vertical direction in the PAW process compared to GMAW (no differences in UTS and elongation results for horizontal direction and in Charpy for both directions) and without significant directional effects of the additive manufacturing technology used.This research was funded by BASQUE GOVERNMENT, grant number KK-2018/00115 (ADDISEND, ELKARTEK 2018 programme) and grant number ZE-2017/00038 (HARITIVE, HAZITEK 2017 programme)