In order to build a better understanding of the relationship between depositing mode and porosity, microstructure, and properties in wire + arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) 2319-Al components, several Al-6.3%Cu deposits were produced by WAAM technique with cold metal transfer (CMT) variants, pulsed CMT (CMT-P) and advanced CMT (CMT-ADV). Thin walls and blocks were selected as the depositing paths to make WAAM samples. Porosity, microstructure and micro hardness of these WAAM samples were investigated. Compared with CMT-P and thin wall mode, CMT-ADV and block process can effectively reduce the pores in WAAM aluminum alloy. The microstructure varied with different depositing paths and CMT variants. The micro hardness value of thin wall samples was around 75 HV from the bottom to the middle, and gradually decreased toward the top. Meanwhile, the micro hardness value ranged around 72–77 HV, and varied periodically in block samples. The variation in micro hardness is consistent with standard microstructure characteristics.

Surface preparation is known to have critical effect on welding quality of engineering materials, for instance, oxidation layer may reduce the weld performance significantly due to porosity issue. Laser cleaning is considered as a promising technique to do surface preparation for welding process. This paper presents the effect of laser cleaning on surface preparation for tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding of commercial aluminum alloy. We demonstrated the feasibility of using laser cleaning method to minimize the oxides layer of Al alloy for TIG welding. This one-step process without use of chemicals or any other additives is environmentally friendly. Comparison of the performance between conversional cleaning method and laser cleaning method was examined carefully to identify the changes in microstructure and chemical analysis of Al alloy welds after TIG welding processing. Special attention was paid to porosity distribution in the fusion zone after laser cleaning. In addition, some thermal melting was found to occur and refined microstructure took place between the fusion zone and the substrate after rapid solidification. It is further proposed that laser cleaning can refine microstructure of the interface between filter wire and the substrate during TIG welding, which may play a significant role in affecting the weld quality.

The steep thermal gradient and complicated thermal cycle occur in the fabrication of Ti6Al4V alloy during laser solid forming (LSF). That leads to obvious anisotropic mechanical properties and requires essential heat treatments to improve its performance. In this work, different heat treatment strategies under vacuum condition were used to study the evolution of microstructures and mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V alloy produced by LSF. The results show that transformation from α phase into lamellar α + β dual-phases structure is introduced at low temperature (550 °C), and the α phase is broken and refined at higher temperature (800 °C). Tensile tests present the increase of elongations in the horizontal and vertical directions by 12.4% and 13.2% for specimens treated by two-step heat treatment (750 °C × 4 h + 500 °C × 1 h). Fatigue crack growth (FCG) lives of LSFed Ti6Al4V alloy after different heat treatments were improved due to the elimination of residual tensile stress and the transformation of α phase into α + β dual-phase structure. Specimens treated at 800 °C for 4 h exhibit a higher fatigue life among those heat-treated alloys. The low sensitivities of the FCG behavior in the Paris-zone to different heat treatments under vacuum condition are explored in the FCG testing of Ti6Al4V alloy.

In order to study the influence of a novel current waveform control method of ultrasonic-frequency pulse (UFP) on arc behaviour, metal transfer process and the welds formation, monitoring system and image processing algorithms were employed for extracting the welding characters. Mechanics, defect, microstructure and mechanical property analysis based on pulsed GMAW was carried out. The results showed that, compared with the conventional pulsed GMAW, the ultrasonic-frequency pulse not only increased axial arc plasma jet force, arc force and droplet falling acceleration, but also suppressed the welded porosity formation, decelerated the microstructure regional element segregations, refined the grain and increased the microhardness property of welded joint. The study helped to reveal the mechanism for improving welding quality of ultrasonic-frequency pulsed GMAW.

Tensile properties optimization of AA 5456 aluminum alloy was carried out with hybrid ultrasonic frequency pulsed variable polarity gas tungsten arc wending (HPVP-GTAW). An orthogonal method was employed to conduct the experiments, and the tensile properties of AA 5456 aluminum alloy welded joints were measured and analyzed. Regression models were developed based on the least square estimation by taking tensile strength, yield strength, percent elongation, and ratio of reduction in area as response functions of variable polarity frequency f_L, pulse frequency f_H and a dimensionless parameter ψ, which were calculated by background current I_b, peak current I_p, and pulse duration δ, respectively. The developed regression equations were checked for validity by coefficient of correlation r² and confirmatory experiments. Optimum parameters of HPVP-GTAW were achieved through the discussion on response surfaces and contour plots drawn using the regression equations.