Effect of Temperature on the Quality of Welding Beads Deposited with CMT Technology

Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) welding process can be applied for Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) to produce metal parts, thanks to its ability to deposit regular welding beads and its low projections rate. The different modes of welding developed around this technology make it possible to control the quantity of heat brought during the welding and are considered interesting for additive manufacturing. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of different welding parameters on the shape of the deposited 4043 aluminum alloy welding beads. The temperature of the part is also a determining parameter to master the quality of the deposited welding beads. An experimental campaign has been conducted to correlate the temperature of the part and the quality of the welding beads in relation to the welding parameters. The results of the campaign are applied to determine an effective strategy for building a cylinder.