Insights into crack prevention and property improvement for additively manufactured ultra-high-strength steel structures with complex geometries

Hybrid wire-arc directed energy deposition (WDED), in which complex features are deposited onto a forged base, offers a cost-effective solution for manufacturing geometrically complex ultra-high-strength steel components, particularly for aerospace applications. However, cracking at the base forging...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jun Wang, Mark Taylor, Chenglei Diao, Ed Pickering, Jian Qin, Yao Lu, Sonia Martins Meco, Jialuo Ding, Stewart Williams
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-07-01
Series:Additive Manufacturing Letters
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772369025000404
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Summary:Hybrid wire-arc directed energy deposition (WDED), in which complex features are deposited onto a forged base, offers a cost-effective solution for manufacturing geometrically complex ultra-high-strength steel components, particularly for aerospace applications. However, cracking at the base forging/build interface during post-build heat treatment limits its widespread application. This study investigates the underlying causes of interfacial cracking, highlighting microstructural inhomogeneity, elemental segregation and transformation stresses as likely key contributing factors. A modified three-step post-build heat treatment incorporating a normalisation step was developed to mitigate some of these issues. The optimised process successfully suppressed cracking by refining prior-austenite grains before the application of a conventional quenching step. This enhanced tensile performance beyond AMS6419K standards, supporting the industrial implementation of hybrid WDED in aerospace structures.
ISSN:2772-3690