Microstructure and residual stress improvement in wire and arc additively manufactured parts through high-pressure rolling

Parts manufactured by Wire and Arc Additive Manufacture (WAAM) can have significant residual stress and distortion, as well as large grain sizes. To overcome these problems, each layer on a linearly deposited steel WAAM part was rolled with either a ‘profiled’ roller, which had a similar shape to the deposited layer, or a ‘slotted’ roller, in which a groove prevented lateral deformation. Both rollers reduced the distortion and surface roughness, but the slotted roller proved more effective – eliminating the distortion. The residual stresses in the rolled WAAM parts were measured and were lower than those in the unrolled control specimen – particularly adjacent to the baseplate. Rolling also induced additional grain refinement when the rolled material was reheated during the subsequent deposition pass. The application of rolling may be a key technology for enabling implementation of WAAM on large-scale structures.