The Development Of Control System For Wire Arc Additive Manufacture Technology

Wire Arc Additive Manufacture(WA-AM), using welding arc as the heat source to melting metal wire, fabricates parts by accumulating deposited metal according to the set path. WA-AM has high material utilization, short production time, low production cost, high chemical homogeneity, fine mechanical properties, less restriction on parts size, suitable for parts repair, etc. Currently, more research works of WA-AM technology are concentrated on the feasibility of forming technology, microstructure and mechanical properties of formed parts. Most of the developed device also stay in the case of single heat source and miniaturization.This paper designed a complete control system which includes PLC controlling, upper-supervision and database management aim to improve stability, surface quality and control precision of forming technology. The design of this control system is based on the large equipment with many heat source and combining the WA-AM technological requirements.Firstly, the overall control scheme of the WA-AM equipment was designed, and communication network was built based on PLC and PC combined by the FCS, DCS and Industrial Ethernet. Then the control scheme of weld torch tracking system, automatic beam shift system and transmission support system was designed according to the technological requirements, build the base of software and hardware for technological monitoring and management through PLC programing, Industrial Ethernet and OPC technology. Finally, a complete central control system software for the WA-AM equipment is designed by LabVIEW.The software includes four different interface with different privileges for administrators, engineers, data recording and operator, with functions of user management, database interaction, monitoring and control the technological process of WA-AM. The system ensured the technological process of WA-AM smoothly and realizes automation in the rapid forming process of the large metal pipe with WA-AM technology.Forming experiments were simulated based cont rol system developed herein. Experiments show that the control system has strong operability and reliability, realized the distributed control and centralize d management of each subsystem. Data analysis show that the control scheme designed in this paper b etter meet the WA-AM technological requirements.