Investigations on the additive manufacturing of structures made of copper-zinc alloys using wire and arc-based welding processes

There is a need in the industry for a highly productive and cost-effective additive manufacturing process that is capable of processing copper-zinc alloys in such a way that acceptable material properties are achieved. To develop technologies that fulfill the requirements, wire and arc-based additive manufacturing with copper-zinc alloys is investigated. As part of the technology development, experiments on tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding with CuZn37 filler wire on CuZn37 substrates are carried out. By varying the arc length, it is shown that with shorter arcs fewer lacks of fusion occur at the seam edges. With further welding experiments, preferred parameters for the manufacturing of higher wall structures are determined. The investigations demonstrate that the reproducible build-up of 20-layer wall structures and cylindrical blanks made of CuZn37 is possible with a TIG process. The cross-sections of selected welds and wall structures are analyzed and measured using an optical microscope. Some samples are scanned using a laser scanner to create height profiles. To investigate the mechanical properties within the additive manufacturing technology, tensile tests are carried out as well.