GOALI: 3-D Welding as New Rapid Prototyping Technique

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This Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project will use a new machine vision sensing system designed with laser backlighting techniques to capture the transfer of metal droplets from a Gas Metal Arc welding system to controlled deposition in a 3-D geometry. The knowledge gained from these experiments will provide a better understanding of the physics of the droplet formation and the deposition mechanisms. It is expected that a high speed image-processing algorithm will be developed to extract key geometrical information from within this high temperature, difficult environment. The transfer of the metal droplets plays a fundamental role in determining the quality of the final product. Due to the strong coupling that exist among the welding parameters, the experimental work is designed in an attempt to isolate their effects upon the droplet formation and deposition. The new layered deposition method based upon this controlled droplet process has high potential for industrial applications, and industry commitment is demonstrated in this GOALI research project.