Alternative cold work methods - Bending
Can bending be used to reduce residual stress alternatively to high-pressure rolling?
Alternative cold work methods - Pinch rollers
Can bending be used to reduce residual stress and introduce cold work alternatively to high-pressure rolling?
Alternative cold work methods - Side rolling
Can GMT be used to reduce residual stress and introduce cold work alternatively to high-pressure rolling?
Alternate peening strategies
What other ways are there to perform peening, besides laser? Can pneumatic hammering be used as well?
High deposition rate laser based AM
Can laser be used in combination with the electric arc to increase WAAM's deposition rate even further?
Laser peening for AM
Can laser shock peening be performed without ablative layer?
Plasma gas control system
Looking at more precise control of the molten pool by acting on the plasma gas
Oscillated wall study
Investigating the geometrical differences related to changes in the oscillation parameters
Integrated deposition and machining
Using our unique flexible cell, we are looking at the challenges of integrating WAAM with machining
Plasma hardware development
Development of WAAM-specific hardware
Laser peening fundamentals
To obtain fundamental understanding of the process to make it more efficient and cost effective to enable use in various applications.
Oscillated wall features
Determining the geometrical characteristics of oscillated walls
Compensation strategies
How do we control the changes in geometry associated to the changes in thermal conditions?
Alternative cold work methods - Global Mechanical Tensioning
Can GMT be used to reduce residual stress alternatively to high-pressure rolling?
Pipe structure building methods
How can we build structures with elbows and changes in section?
Mixed material pipe structure
How can we build structures with more than one material? Can WAAM replace complex cladding operations?
Study of fundamental laser material interaction parameters in powder melting
This project will implement the model on the interaction between laser and powder for AM applications, following Cranfield's fundamental work on the Power Factor in laser welding.
Machining of WAAM parts
Investigating the datum requirements for WAAM parts and how to define the CNC toolpath for the post-machining.
WAAM process development for multi-axis deposition
Developing 8-axis motion to increase parts' complexity
Mixed material demo parts
Building graded parts in one shot.
Multi-dimensional rolling
Developing a multi-dimensional deposition and rolling system
Process monitoring temperature and shape (RAWFEED)
Enabling the HiVE machine to perform monitoring of temperature and shape
Shielding device study (part 2)
A local (trailing) shielding device for WAAM will be tested for the deposition of aerospace parts
CAM software development for WAAM
Developing WAAM-specific CAM software
CAM software development for rolling
Developing a WAAM specific CAM software for the generation of the roller's tool path
Testing of innovative plasma torch design
Testing of an innovative plasma torch developed by PWP Industrial
Active cooling for WAAM (part 2)
Cryogenic cooling (using argon) of WAAM parts will be tested to avoid the build-up of heat, improving productivity and properties.
Out of position deposition of titanium
Can titanium be deposited out-of-position without the need for support structures?
Laser smoothing of WAAM surfaces
A laser source is used to remelt the surface of WAAM parts and smoothen it by the controlled melt flow.
wPOS - A 6 degree of freedom workpiece position and orientation sensor
Using lasers to measure position
In-situ manufacture / repair of armoured vehicle
Can we manufacture or repair large aluminium structures in situ?
Non-contact optical fibre interferometer for layer height and width measurement
Using lasers to measure shape
Non-contact in-plane position and velocity measurement using laser speckle
Using lasers to measure position
Manufacture of large aluminium parts
Larger and larger components
Process monitoring, temperature and shape
Developing techniques to monitor temperature and shape
Aluminium interface studies
What happens at the interface between WAAM aluminium and wrought plates?
Aluminium - process optimisation
Optimising the WAAM of aluminium to improve process control
Deposition of tantalum
Tackling the challenging deposition of refractory metals
Aluminium development – baseline wires
Looking at the variability of aluminium wires
Aluminium development (part 2) including demo parts
Developing WAAM of aluminium further
Aluminium development – Rolling and HT
Looking at the effect of rolling and heat treatment on aluminium deposited by WAAM
Aluminium - Mixed wire study
Creating alloys in-situ
Aluminium development for armour applications
Improving WAAM of aluminium to increase its mechanical properties
Aluminum Metal matrix composites
How do we create aluminium MMCs?
Design for WAAM
Developing design rules for WAAM
Medial transformation study
Using the medial transformation to improve tool path generation
Topological optimisation for WAAM
Can topological optimisation be applied to WAAM parts?
Process and properties for high strength steel
Developing WAAM of ER80 and ER90
Effect of ambient oxygen on Ti properties
Investigating the effect of different oxygen concentrations in the deposition atmosphere
WAAM of medium strength steels
Developing WAAM of steel
Investigation of Molybdenum and steel
Developing WAAM of molybdenum and steel
Mixed high strength steel and inconel structures
Developing WAAM of graded HSS / superalloys structures
CAD to toolpath generation
Developing our software to generate the tool path from an existing CAD file
Mechanical properties of Titanium: oscillated vs linear walls
How do the properties change based upon different deposition strategies?
Process and properties for Inconel 625 and 718
Developing WAAM of superalloys
Cost analysis tool for WAAM including machining
Our cost estimation framework to calculate the cost of a part made by WAAM or machined from solid
Multi-axis toolpath generation
Developing of our own software to exploit 16 axes
Feature recognition
Developing of our own software to go recognise features in existing parts from a WAAM point of view
Feature based design tool
Developing of our own software to design parts based on a library of standard features
Deposition of tungsten and molybdenum
Tackling the challenging deposition of refractory metals
Process control for laser-hybrid additive manufacture of metals
Improving the process control during laser-arc hybrid AM processing
MODELLING APPLICATIONS OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING IN DEFENCE SUPPORT SERVICES
To develop a framework to assess costs and benefits of Additive Manufacturing applications in Defence Support Services for Royal Navy
Effect of dopants on arc wander during MIG deposition of titanium
Can the composition of the shielding gas be changed to avoid arc wandering?