Launched as part of the IRT SystemX partnership with the Additive Factory Hub (ADH), the WAS (Wire Additive manufacturing process Simulation) project looks at the optimisation of control strategies for the manufacturing process by robotic metal-wire deposition.
The 42-month long WAS project aims to develop models and a digital environment (digital twin) to optimize the control of the additive manufacturing process by metal-wire deposition, which is popular for creating large parts or for adding features by reloading, with the creation of a demonstrator. The intended use cases will concern the oil and gas, aeronautics and energy production industries. Its implementation will be carried out on the WAAM manufacturing cell of the Additive Factory Hub (AFH) additive manufacturing research platform (AFH) with which the IRT SystemX has signed a partnership contract.
This project aims to remove the technological barriers related to the management of the trajectories and the optimization of the welding parameters (speed, current, voltage) to obtain the expected properties (projection, cordmaintenance, cord width, etc.). For this, three intermediate objectives are targeted:
- The development of a digital twin of the complete system, which will allow a robust and realistic simulation of the torch orientation position with respect to the part and its kinematic behavioUr in all circumstances, in order to guarantee the effectiveness of the process.
- The definition of innovative and optimal manufacturing strategies to meet the quality criteria required by the targeted applications
- The modelling, simulation and optimization of all or part of the process to limit deformation of parts and reduction of mechanical properties.
