Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing: A new tool to simultaneously develop advanced copper alloys and print large scale components

Rapid development of electronic and telecommunication technologies demands advanced copper alloys, possessing good conductivity, with superior mechanical strength. With the advancement and maturity in additive manufacturing (AM) technology, AM emerges as a potential tool for material development that reduces the cost of material development by merging the processes of material development and component fabrication. In this presentation, we are demonstrating our work on the development of a high-strength high conductivity Copper alloy based on Ni alloying through wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM). Precise control of alloying and gradation of alloying along the layers are achieved by independent control of Cu/Ni wires feed and separate arc sources. Results indicated superior performance of the developed alloy in terms of strength-conductivity combination when the Ni alloying is maintained below 2%. Increase in Ni alloying beyond this value led to significant improvement in the strength/ductility synergy, but at the cost of conductivity. A multilayering approach to handle this problem is also presented in detail with metallurgical investigation and underlying deformation mechanisms. Results showed superior interlayer bonding and crack propagation across the layers during tensile testing. The proposed strategy would lead to a viable scalable technological solution for Copper based components of Naval and Aerospace applications.