Sajan Kapil

Metal inert gas (MIG), Tungsten INERT GAs (TIG), laser and Electron beam (EB) cladding processes are used in cladding-based Additive manufacturing (AM). Only in the case of MIG, the raw-stock is fed axially into the molten pool resulting in the omni-directional cladding. In other processes, the raw-stock is fed off-axially into the molten pool resulting in deviation in the bead geometry from its actual trajectory and varying bead cross-section along the path. As the trajectories vary widely in cladding-based AM, it is required to maintain a consistent raw-stock feeding condition (namely, front, back or sides). Therefore, an auxiliary wire orienting mechanism has been developed which can be easily retrofitted with a conventional TIG cladding torch and CNC machine. The wire orientation angle is computed on-the-fly and hence the NC programme need not provide this information. Although this implementation was demonstrated for TIG, the same methodology holds good for laser and EB too.

Purpose: The support structures of sacrificial material are built in deposition-based additive manufacturing (AM), which are later removed either by breaking or dissolving. Such a sacrificial material is not feasible in metal AM. The purpose of this study is to find a suitable method for eliminating the need of support mechanism. In this work, the authors use the tilting of the substrate to alleviate the need for the support mechanism altogether. Design/methodology/approach: As in the traditional AM, the object is grown in horizontal layers. However, wherever undercuts are encountered, the substrate is tilted appropriately to capture the droplets. Such a tilt involves two rotary axes invariably. To conform to the slice geometry, these two tilts are accompanied by the three linear movements. Thus, the object with undercuts is grown in planar layers using five-axis deposition without any support structure. Each pair of the corresponding top and bottom contours of any slice defines a ruled surface. The axis of the deposition head will be aligned with the rules of this surface. Findings: The need for the support mechanism was eliminated using five-axis deposition. This was experimentally demonstrated by building an aluminum impeller using a metal inert gas cladding head. Research limitations/implications: In the proposed methodology, the objects with an abrupt change in the geometry are not possible to realize. Originality/value: This manuscript proposed a novel method of eliminating the support mechanism through continuous five-axis deposition.

Purpose: In additive manufacturing (AM) process, the physical properties of the products made by fractal toolpaths are better as compared to those made by conventional toolpaths. Also, it is desirable to minimize the number of tool retractions. The purpose of this study is to describe three different methods to generate fractal-based computer numerical control (CNC) toolpath for area filling of a closed curve with minimum or zero tool retractions. Design/methodology/approach: This work describes three different methods to generate fractal-based CNC toolpath for area filling of a closed curve with minimum or zero tool retractions. In the first method, a large fractal square is placed over the outer boundary and then rest of the unwanted curve is trimmed out. To reduce the number of retractions, ends of the trimmed toolpath are connected in such a way that overlapping within the existing toolpath is avoided. In the second method, the trimming of the fractal is similar to the first method but the ends of trimmed toolpath are connected such that the overlapping is found at the boundaries only. The toolpath in the third method is a combination of fractal and zigzag curves. This toolpath is capable of filling a given connected area in a single pass without any tool retraction and toolpath overlap within a tolerance value equal to stepover of the toolpath. Findings: The generated toolpath has several applications in AM and constant Z-height surface finishing. Experiments have been performed to verify the toolpath by depositing material by hybrid layered manufacturing process. Research limitations/implications: Third toolpath method is suitable for the hybrid layered manufacturing process only because the toolpath overlapping tolerance may not be enough for other AM processes. Originality/value: Development of a CNC toolpath for AM specifically hybrid layered manufacturing which can completely fill any arbitrary connected area in single pass while maintaining a constant stepover.

In this work, the finite-element method (FEM) is used to develop the governing equation of motion of the working roll of a four-high rolling mill and to study its vibration due to different process parameters. The working roll is modeled as an Euler Bernoulli beam by taking beam elements with vertical displacement and slope as the nodal degrees-of-freedom in the finite-element formulation. The bearings at the ends of the working rolls are modeled using spring elements. To calculate the forces acting on the working roll, the interaction between the working roll and the backup roll is modeled by using the work roll submodel, and the interaction between the working roll and the sheet is modeled by using the roll bite submodel (Lin et al., 2003, “On Characteristics and Mechanism of Rolling Instability and Chatter,” ASME J. Manuf. Sci. Eng., 125(4), pp. 778–786). Nodal displacements and velocities are obtained by using the Newmark Beta method after solving the governing equation of motion of the working roll. The transient and steady-state variation of roll gap, exit thickness profile, exit stress, and sheet force along the length of the strip have been found for different bearing stiffnesses and widths of the strip. By using this model, one can predict the shape of the outcoming strip profile and exit stress variation which will be useful to avoid many defects, such as edge buckling or center buckling in rolling processes.

In this work, a four high cold rolling mill is modeled as a spring-mass-damper system considering horizontally and vertically applied time-dependent forces due to the interaction between the strip and the working rolls. The effect of vibration of the moving strip on the work roll vibration is also considered for developing the governing equation of motion of the system which is found to be that of a nonlinear parametrically excited system. The governing equation of motion is solved by using the method of multiple scales to find the instability regions and frequency-response curves of the system. The critical amplitude of horizontal load in roll bite is calculated and the frequency-response is studied in detail considering the effect of various process parameters, such as velocity, thickness of strip, time delay, amplitude, and frequency of horizontal load in roll bite. This work can find application in the design and development of high speed and chatter free rolling mills.