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With the proliferation and diversification of metal additive manufacturing (AM) processes in recent years, effective decision tools for process selection are of increasing importance. This paper presents a novel time activity based cost model for Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), an emergent metal AM technology. The full process chain is modelled and a tool-path based deposition cost employed. The results show that WAAM has significant potential as a cost-effective manufacturing approach compared to other AM and conventional CNC machining methods. Sensitivity analysis identifies indirect costs as a key cost driver generally, with parts per build plate, and shielding cost having significance for smaller and larger parts respectively.
Cunningham et al. (Sun,) studied this question.