Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is a metal 3D printing technology that rapidly prototypes by depositing molten metal wire onto a substrate. Traditionally, WAAM has relied on open-loop control with carefully tuned parameters, a process that can be time-consuming and often results in inconsistent performance. Although laser line scanners and other 3D scanning techniques have been used to ensure geometric fidelity, they typically provide feedback through layer-by-layer scans, leaving imperfections from arc striking and extinguishing. This paper introduces a novel approach incorporating infrared (IR) camera thermography to achieve more consistent and reliable WAAM printing with real-time feedback. By using IR live streaming to close the loop with in-layer updates, we demonstrate how this feedback mechanism can enhance control over bead width consistency and wire stick-out length, ultimately leading to higher-quality metal 3D-printed structures. Compared with open-loop preset constant welding parameters on a triangular wall geometry, our IR-guided WAAM process achieves 49% bead width variance reduction and 95% wire stick-out length tracking improvement.
Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing with Infrared Image Feedback
Abstract
Reference
Honglu He, John T. Wen
(2025).
Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing with Infrared Image Feedback
ASME Letters in Translational Robotics, February 17, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4067980.
Archival Journals