Ti–6Al–4V alloy deposition characteristics at electrode-negative polarity in the cold metal transfer–gas metal arc process

Although wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) of Ti alloys using gas metal arc yields a high deposition rate, cathode spots exhibit unstable behavior. In this study, the cold-metal-transfer process and an electrode-negative (EN) polarity were used in the WAAM process of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy. High-speed imaging was performed to investigate the mechanisms to stabilize cathode plasma jets, arc plasma, and molten metal transfer in the EN polarity. Arc plasma and cathode jets had the same direction, and sound cathode jets were shrouded by arc plasma in the EN mode. The metal transfer was also stabilized by balanced plasma formation under the EN mode, and inconsistent wire melting under the electrode-positive (EP) mode was mitigated. In the deposition test using the EN mode, distributed heating of the substrate and depressed molten pool were observed, which resulted in a 21.0% increase in the bead width and 27% decrease in the wetting angle compared with the EP mode. This study demonstrated that the instability of the gas metal arc WAAM process of Ti alloys can be overcome with the EN-mode cold metal arc process.