Introduction to the design rules for Metal Big Area Additive Manufacturing

Wire feed metal additive manufacturing offers advantages, such as large build volumes and high build rates, over powder bed and blown powder techniques, but it has its own disadvantages, i.e., lower feature resolution and bead morphology control issues. A new wire feed metal additive manufacturing process called Metal Big Area Additive Manufacturing (mBAAM) uses a Gas Metal Arc Weld system on an articulated robot arm to increase build volume and deposition rate in comparison to powder bed techniques. The high deposition rate implies a low-resolution process; therefore, parts designed for mBAAM must incorporate the use of machining to achieve certain features. This paper presents an introduction to how design rules, such as overhang constraint, large weld bead thickness, and support structure, for mBAAM interact in the context of an excavator arm case study, which was designed using topology optimization.