Joining of stainless steel and titanium dissimilar metal combination has a specific interest in the nuclear industry. Due to the metallurgical incompatibility, it has been very difficult to produce reliable joints between these metals due to the formation of FeTi and Fe₂Ti types of intermetallic compounds. The metallurgical incompatibility between both materials is enhanced by the time–temperature profile of the welding process used. Brittle intermetallics (IMCs) are formed during Fe–Ti welding (FeTi and Fe₂Ti). The present study uses the low thermal heat input process cold metal transfer (CMT), when compared with conventional GMAW, to deposit a copper (Cu) bead between Ti and stainless steel. Cu is compatible with Fe, and it has a lower melting point than the two base materials. The welds were produced between AMS 4911L (Ti-6Al-4V) and AISI 316L stainless steel using a CuSi-3 welding wire. The joints produced revealed two IM layers located near the parent metals/weld interfaces. The hardness of these layers is higher than the remainder of the weld bead. Tensile tests were carried out with a maximum strength of 200 MPa, but the interfacial failure could not be avoided. Ti atomic migration was observed during experimental trials; however, the IMC formed are less brittle than FeTi, inducing higher mechanical properties.

Wire + arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a modern manufacturing process that has opened new possibilities for rapid builds and reductions in material wastage. This paper explores residual stress in WAAM Ti-6Al-4V walls built using three different deposition strategies: single bead, parallel path, and oscillation path. The effect of interlayer hammer peening and interlayer temperature was investigated for the single bead walls. We also examined the residual stress in compact-tension (C(T)) coupons extracted from large builds (walls) with crack orientation either parallel with or perpendicular to the build direction. This type of sample is often used for the measurement of the fatigue crack growth rate. The contour method was used for experimental determinations of residual stress. In addtion, residual stress in the C(T) coupons was estimated by finite element (FE) analysis. A good agreement was achieved between the contour method and FE analysis. The oscillation-path wall had the lowest residual stress values. For the single bead walls built with various process conditions, residual stress was significantly reduced after removing the substrate. A interlayer temperature of 110 °C resulted in much higher residual stress values in the wall (both tensile and compressive) compared to the continuous build, with much higher interlayer temperature.

The demand for cost-efficient manufacturing of complex metal components has driven research for metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) such as Wire + Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM). WAAM enables automated, time- and material-efficient manufacturing of metal parts. To strengthen these benefits, the demand for robotically deployed in-process Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) has risen, aiming to replace current manually deployed inspection techniques after completion of the part. This work presents a synchronized multi-robot WAAM and NDE cell aiming to achieve (1) defect detection in-process, (2) enable possible in-process repair and (3) prevent costly scrappage or rework of completed defective builds. The deployment of the NDE during a deposition process is achieved through real-time position control of robots based on sensor input. A novel high-temperature capable, dry-coupled phased array ultrasound transducer (PAUT) roller-probe device is used for the NDE inspection. The dry-coupled sensor is tailored for coupling with an as-built high-temperature WAAM surface at an applied force and speed. The demonstration of the novel ultrasound in-process defect detection approach, presented in this paper, was performed on a titanium WAAM straight sample containing an intentionally embedded tungsten tube reflectors with an internal diameter of 1.0 mm. The ultrasound data were acquired after a pre-specified layer, in-process, employing the Full Matrix Capture (FMC) technique for subsequent post-processing using the adaptive Total Focusing Method (TFM) imaging algorithm assisted by a surface reconstruction algorithm based on the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT). The presented results show a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, a potential for early defect detection is achieved, directly strengthening the benefits of the AM process by enabling a possible in-process repair.