Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing by Robot Manipulator: Towards Creating Complex Geometries

Additive manufacturing (AM) is the umbrella term that covers a variety of techniques that build up structures layer-by-layer as opposed to machining and other subtracting methods. It keeps evolving as an important technology in prototyping and the development of new devices. However, using AM on a larger scale is still challenging, as traditional methods require the AM machines to be larger than the manufactured structure. The research presented in this paper is a continuation of our work on assessing the possibility of large-scale robotic AM. The focus in this paper is the feasibility of large-scale AM of metallic materials by arc welding. A series of experiments with robotic arc welding using an ABB IRB2400/10 robot are presented and discussed. These experiment will help map some of the challenges that need to be addressed in future work.