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proprietary software from Lincoln Electric. “Other software-driven process enhance- ments we’re striving to achieve,” says Mike Whitehead, senior vice president, and president, global automation, cutting and additive businesses, “include modeling of how the layers of deposited metal will look like as we adjust parameters such as
wire diameter, speed and amperage.”
Software Development at the Core
Much of the software development mentioned above has its foundation in Lincoln Electric’s inherent welding and metallurgy knowledge, and as the software evolves, the need for manual intervention into the high-deposition DED process will diminish. Automation then will quicken the production of prototype and production parts. “In the end,” says Whitehead, “tools and parts made as low-volume castings that can take a manufacturer months to tool up for can be printed in weeks or even days. And, we can robotically deposit part fea- tures that would be difficult or impossible
to achieve in a machining environment.” For now, Lincoln Electric Additive Solu- tions prints carbon and stainless steels, and will soon be printing Invar (FeNi36 nickel-iron alloy) as well as nickel and alu- minum alloys. It’s using two DED process- es: laser hot-wire, where an advanced power supply preheats the wire almost to the melting point, allowing for a much higher deposition rate compared to no preheat; and gas-metal-arc welding (GMAW ). GMAW typically finds use for printing carbon and stainless steels; the laser hot-wire process gets the call for more complex base materials such as tita- nium and nickel alloys, and also can accommodate cored wires, which allow Lincoln the ability to customize the mate- rial mix. Whether using solid or cored wire, Lincoln Electric’s ability to produce wire in huge several-hundred-pound boxes, compared to the 10-lb. spools, allows unin-
terrupted production for days at a time. Lincoln Electric operates its AM busi- ness with a team of 250, most of which
work at Baker’s Detroit-based facilities. The Additive Solutions team in Cleveland comprises 10 individuals, and is expected to grow to 25 or 30 by year-end, as the firm looks to add more than 20 new pro- duction workcells to its dedicated 75,000- sq.-ft. plant. This is in addition to the three DED workcells at ORNL, including a three- robot workcell.
The focus: making parts, demonstrat- ing DED capabilities to customers and prospects, and learning how to enhance and ensure quality throughout what typ- ically are very large builds comprising hundreds of stacked layers.
“We really want to get to 100 lb./hr. per robot,” says Matthews, noting that with a single-wire process, the production rate averages around 10 lb./hr. Lincoln and ORNL intend to operate the three- arm robot setup with Lincoln’s new two- arc process (HyperFill, launched at FABTECH 2018 in Atlanta), which they expect to deposit metal at around 60 lb./hr. 3DMP
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