Additive Manufacturing of Engineering Steels using Flux-cored Wire

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Corewire Ltd manufacture flux-cored wire welding consumables. They also manufacture equipment which uses these wire consumables to repair and resurface a variety of high wear resistance steel components. This includes dies for the manufacture of automotive components and rolls used in the production of rolled metal. This project will explore how this current technology and capability can be evolved into additive manufacturing of full components. A key thread will be establishing and quantifying the specific challenges to moving from resurfacing by depositing a few layers of weld metal to full component manufacture using tens or even hundreds of layers. The project will therefore commence with the deposition of current resurfacing solutions (first six months) and progress with the manufacture of increasingly challenging steels and prototypical components. The challenges include higher performance steels, increased reinforcement, compositional grading, more complex geometry, etc. The research programme will include microstructural characterisation, experimental stress-strain measurement, modelling of stress-strain accumulation during additive manufacture and alloy development. High wear resistance steels will be the focus of the research programme and the research is likely to include some wear evaluation and fracture toughness testing. Alongside the scientific, technological and engineering programme the project will work with a range of existing customers and new industrial partners to identify specific applications of this emerging additive manufacturing capability.