Study on Metamorphic Rolling Mechanism for Metal Hybrid Additive Manufacturing

The uneven of the surface shaped by overlapping beads has been observed during metal additive manufacturing (AM). These uneven surfaces have a cumulative effect on the accuracy of the component in the Z-direction. Conventionally, each layer was face milled to solve the problem, which resulted in material and time wastes. In this paper, the metamorphic mechanism was introduced to metal additive manufacturing and a novel metamorphic rolling mechanism with three rollers was developed. It configuration can change according to the feature of the part to rolling the deposition upper or lateral surfaces. The influence of rolling force and rolling temperature on the shape of bead was studied. Optimal rolling parameters were obtained to control the height and width of overlapping beads. In addition, it is worthwhile to mention that the hybrid deposition and rolling method will be beneficial to refine grain, avoid the hot crack and improve the mechanical properties of parts.