Commercial high-strength filler metals for wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) are already available. However, widespread industrial use is currently limited due to a lack of quantitative knowledge and guidelines regarding welding stresses and component safety during manufacture and operation for WAAM structures. In a joint research project, the process- and material-related as well as design influences associated with residual stress formation and the risk of cold cracking are being investigated. For this purpose, reference specimens are welded fully automated with defined dimensions and systematic variation of heat control using a special, high-strength WAAM filler metal (yield strength > 790 MPa). Heat control is varied by means of heat input (200–650 kJ/m) and interlayer temperature (100–300 °C). The ∆t_8/5 cooling times correspond with the recommendations of filler metal producers (approx. 5–20 s). For this purpose, additional thermo-physical forming simulations using a dilatometer allowed the complex heat cycles to be reproduced and the resulting ultimate tensile strength of the weld metal to be determined. Welding parameters and AM geometry are correlated with the resulting microstructure, hardness, and residual stress state. High heat input leads to a lower tensile stress in the component and may cause unfavorable microstructure and mechanical properties. However, a sufficiently low interlayer temperature is likely to be suitable for obtaining adequate properties at a reduced tensile stress level when welding with high heat input. The component design affects heat dissipation conditions and the intensity of restraint during welding and has a significant influence on the residual stress. These complex interactions are analyzed within this investigation. The aim is to provide easily applicable processing recommendations and standard specifications for an economical, appropriate, and crack-safe WAAM of high-strength steels.

Advanced high-performance filler metals for wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) exist on the market already. Nevertheless, these high-strength steels are not yet widely used in industrial applications due to limited knowledge of cold-cracking susceptibility, welding residual stresses, and therefore sufficient safety in terms of manufacturing and operation. High residual stresses promote cold-cracking risk, especially in the welding of high-strength steels, as the result of a complex interaction between the applied material, process conditions, and component design. The focus of the present investigation was the determination of the influence of the process parameters on the ∆t_8/5 cooling time, mechanical properties, and residual stresses to correlate, for the first time, heat control, cooling conditions, and residual stress for WAAM of high-strength filler materials. This contributed to the knowledge regarding the safe avoidance of cold cracking. In addition to a thermophysical simulation using a dilatometer of different high-strength steels with subsequent tensile testing, reference WAAM specimens (open hollow cuboids) were welded while utilizing a high-strength filler metal (ultimate tensile strength > 790 MPa). The heat control was varied by means of the heat input and interlayer temperature such that the ∆t_8/5 cooling times corresponded to the recommended processing range (approx. 5 s to 20 s). For the heat input, significant effects were exhibited, in particular on the local residual stresses in the component. Welding with an excessive heat input or deposition rate may lead to low cooling rates, and hence to unfavorable microstructure and component properties, but at the same time, is intended to result in lower tensile residual stress levels. Such complex interactions must ultimately be clarified to provide users with easily applicable processing recommendations and standard specifications for an economical WAAM of high-strength steels. These investigations demonstrated a major influence of the heat input on both the cooling conditions and the residual stresses of components manufactured with WAAM using high-strength filler materials. A higher heat input led to longer cooling times (∆t_8/5) and approx. 200 MPa lower residual stresses in the surface of the top layer.

High-strength steels offer potential for weight optimization due to reduced wall thicknesses in modern constructions. Additive manufacturing processes such as Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) enable the resource-efficient production of structures. In the case of defects occurring in weld seams or WAAM components due to unstable process conditions, the economical solution is local gouging or machining and repair welding. It is important to understand the effects of machining steps on the multiaxial stress state in conjunction with the design-related shrinkage restraints. Research into how welding and slot milling of welds and WAAM structures affects residual stresses is still lacking. For this reason, component-related investigations with high-strength steels with yield strengths ≥790 MPa are carried out in our research. In-situ digital image correlation (DIC) and ex-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to analyze the stresses and strains induced on specimens during and after milling. The systematic analyses revealed a significant interaction of the stiffness and microstructure of the specimens with the initial residual stresses induced by welding. Subsequent repair welds can result in significantly higher residual stresses.

In hybrid additive manufacturing, components or semi-finished products manufactured by conventional primary forming are enhanced or modified by additive manufactured structures. However, systematic investigations focusing on the critical transition area between the specific properties of the substrate (like high-strength) and the additively manufactured component, made of specific filler material, are still lacking. The focus of the present study was to determine the influence of heat control on the ∆t _8/5 cooling time, the distortion, the mechanical properties, and the residual stresses in the transition area of hybrid-additive components. This contributed to the knowledge regarding the safe avoidance of cold cracking, excessive distortion, a reduction in yield stress, and the implementation of hybrid DED-arc manufacturing. The heat control was varied by means of heat input and working temperature such that the ∆t _8/5 cooling times corresponded to the recommended processing range. The heat input has a greater influence on the cooling time in the transition area than the working temperature. Working temperature and the total energy applied per layer have a significant effect on component distortion. The lowest working temperature of 100 °C in combination with the highest total energy per layer leads to significantly greater distortion compared to manufacturing with a high working temperature of 300 °C and low total energy per layer. In addition, the longitudinal residual compressive stresses in the sensitive transition area are reduced from − 500 MPa to approx. − 200 MPa by adjusting the working temperature from 100 to 300 °C. Such complex interactions must be clarified comprehensively to provide users with easily applicable processing recommendations and standard specifications for an economical hybrid additive manufacturing of components made, for example, of high-strength steels in the transition area.

Directed energy deposition (DED)-Arc is suitable for the hybrid additive manufacturing, modification and repair of large metal components with high deposition rates. Residual stresses and distortion are of central importance when characterizing the manufactured components and the sensitive transition area between additive manufactured (AM) component and semi-finished product. Residual stresses caused by the thermal cycles during the manufacturing process can impair the mechanical properties of the manufactured parts and can lead to component failure, especially for high-strength steels. Therefore, understanding and controlling residual stresses, when combining different base and feedstock materials, is critical to improve the quality and efficiency of the hybrid DED-Arc process. This article deals with the influence of the build-up height on the residual stress distribution of additively manufactured components with a selected base and feedstock material from commercial high-strength steels. Using a robot-assisted DED-system and a controlled short arc, AM welding experiments were carried out with close to the application parameters at working temperature (200 °C) and heat input (650 kJ/m). Five hybrid AM specimens (AM wall on upright structural steel plate) were produced using a one bead per layer strategy and selected AM-wall heights between 15 and 300 mm. The influence of the AM build height on the longitudinal residual stress in the whole hybrid AM specimen (in welding direction) was analyzed and discussed. All experiments exhibit comparable stress distributions in the area of the substrate plate up to the heat-affected zone (HAZ) and the transition zone, regardless of the building height. The height significantly influences the residual stress distribution of the deposited AM-component. Tensile residual stresses with a maximum range between 300and 400 MPa were always found in the last approx. 18 component layers (upper 40 mm). This is due to restraint of the shrinking of the top layers by the layers below. The lower layers show homogeneous residual stress distributions characterized by low compressive stresses due to the process-related tempering during the deposition of each layer on top of each other. As a result, the significant difference between the various AM build-up heights of the hybrid AM specimens is the extent (or height) of this tempered zone with low compressive stresses. These correlations contribute to the understanding of residual stress development with increasing structure height or ratio of component heights of substrate semi-finished product and AM component in hybrid additive manufacturing.