Acoustic emissions in directed energy deposition processes such as wire arc additive manufacturing and directed energy deposition with laser beam/metal are investigated within this work, as many insights about the process can be gained from this. In both processes, experienced operators can hear whether a process is running stable or not. Therefore, different experiments for stable and unstable processes with common process anomalies were carried out, and the acoustic emissions as well as process camera images were captured. Thereby, it was found that stable processes show a consistent mean intensity in the acoustic emissions for both processes. For wire arc additive manufacturing, it was found that by the Mel spectrum, a specific spectrum adapted to human hearing, the occurrence of different process anomalies can be detected. The main acoustic source in wire arc additive manufacturing is the plasma expansion of the arc. The acoustic emissions and the occurring process anomalies are mainly correlating with the size of the arc because that is essentially the ionized volume leading to the air pressure which causes the acoustic emissions. For directed energy deposition with laser beam/metal, it was found that by the Mel spectrum, the occurrence of an unstable process can also be detected. The main acoustic emissions are created by the interaction between the powder and the laser beam because the powder particles create an air pressure through the expansion of the particles from the solid state to the liquid state when these particles are melted. These findings can be used to achieve an in situ quality assurance by an in-process analysis of the acoustic emissions.

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing allows the cost-effective manufacturing of customized, large-scale metal parts. As the post-process quality assurance of large parts is costly and time-consuming, process monitoring is inevitable. In the present study, a context-aware monitoring solution was investigated by integrating machine, temporal, and spatial context in the data analysis. By analyzing the voltage patterns of each cycle in the oscillating cold metal transfer process with a deep neural network, temporal context was included. Spatial context awareness was enabled by building a digital twin of the manufactured part using an Octree as spatial indexing data structure. By means of the spatial context awareness, two quality metrics—the defect expansion and the local anomaly density—were introduced. The defect expansion was tracked in-process by assigning detected defects to the same defect cluster in case of spatial correlation. The local anomaly density was derived by defining a spherical region of interest which enabled the detection of aggregations of anomalies. By means of the context aware monitoring system, defects were detected in-process with a higher sensitivity as common defect detectors for welding applications, showing less false-positives and false-negatives. A quantitative evaluation of defect expansion and densities of various defect types such as pore nests was enabled.

In recent years, the interest in Additive Manufacturing on an industrial scale has risen due to the various new processes and the increase in potential use cases. In this thesis, the two Additive Manufacturing processes, Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing and Laser Metal Deposition were investigated. Both processes belong to the Directed Energy Deposition processes in Additive Manufacturing and are already used in different industrial areas such as automotive, aviation, railway, or medical engineering. A major challenge for the industrialization of Additive Manufacturing is the insufficient quality and repeatability of the manufactured parts due to the complexity of the processes and the lack of process knowledge. Therefore, this work focused on a deeper understanding of the process characteristics and their correlations with different sensors used for in-situ analysis.  One of the sensors used for in-situ analysis was high-speed imaging. High-speed imaging during Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing revealed that different lead angles of the welding torch have an influence on fluctuation effects in the manufactured structures. To avoid such fluctuation effects, which mainly origin from too low or too high interlayer temperatures, it was found that a pushing Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing process with a slightly tilted lead angle is working best. Apart from fluctuation effects, oxidation of aluminium can be also critical for the process stability of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing. It was found that the surface oxidation on aluminium parts changed from an amorphous oxide layer into a white duplex oxide layer during the process. It was also found that oxidation anomalies, which can occur during processing due to process instabilities or lack of shielding gas, can be detected by light emission spectroscopy during manufacturing as peaks in the light spectrum arise when they occur. Another challenge in Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing of aluminium is the porosity in parts as it can have a significant impact on the resulting mechanical properties. It has been observed that as the shielding gas flow rate increases, the porosity in aluminium parts also increases due to the rapid solidification of the melt pool by the forced convection of gas flow. In addition, it has been shown that gas inclusions escaping from the melt pool leave cavities on the surface that can be observed by process imaging, which reveals information about the porosity of the part. Another promising sensor for in-situ analysis of the process characteristics are microphones that capture acoustic emissions. For Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing, the investigations showed that the main acoustic emissions origin from the plasma expansion of the arc. The acoustic emissions and the process anomalies that occur correlate mainly with the size of the arc because that is essentially the ionized volume that leads to the air pressure and causes the acoustic emissions. For Laser Metal Deposition, it was found that the main acoustic emissions are created by the interaction between the powder particles and the laser beam, because they create an air pressure when the particles expand from the solid state to the liquid state while melting. Another major area investigated in this thesis was multi-material Additive Manufacturing, as process and material characteristics can change significantly. For processing of multi-material parts in Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing, it was found that the strength was limited by the properties of the individual aluminium alloys and not by those of the material transition zones. Process monitoring algorithms have been investigated to determine the chemical composition of the processed material. It was shown that the voltage, current, acoustic, and spectral emission data can be used for in-situ analysis of the chemical differences between two aluminium alloys. For Laser Metal Deposition, the design freedom of Additive Manufacturing with multiple materials was also demonstrated. It was shown that material transitions can be implemented discrete and graded, but the gradual material transition showed advantages in avoiding cracks in the material transition zones. In summary, all scientific papers contributed to a deeper process understanding of the process, the processed materials, and the resulting mechanical properties. In addition, the contributions provided crucial insights into the interrelationships of the process characteristics and the physical principles of various sensors used for in-situ analysis of the processes. 

Directed energy deposition (DED) enables the additive manufacturing of several materials such as molybdenum alloys that are very difficult to process by conventional methods. Some of these materials are highly reactive to gases in ambient atmosphere such as oxygen, and nitrogen. Oxidation during additive manufacturing significantly influences the mechanical properties of a part. In some cases, the shielding gas coverage of standard powder nozzles is not sufficient, and oxidation still takes place. A functional prototype of a compound multi flow path annular nozzle was developed using computational fluid dynamics simulations. Simulations were performed using multi-component miscible gas model. Prototypes were manufactured for several design iterations to test their functionality in cold flow conditions. In the end, an Inconel based prototype was built, using laser powder bed fusion. The volume of shielding gas cover over the substrate improved with the proposed design and the radial extent of 80 ppm oxygen concentration increased from 8 mm to 25 mm. Finally, Mo-Si-B alloy was deposited on a 1000 °C pre-heated substrate without significant oxidation or cracks.

The powder mass flow rate is one of the main parameters regarding the geometrical precision of built components in the additive manufacturing process of laser metal deposition. However, its accuracy, constancy, and repeatability over the course of the running process is not given. Reasons among others are the performance of the powder conveyors, the complex nature of the powder behavior, and the resulting issues with existing closed-loop control approaches. Additionally, a direct in situ measurement of the powder mass flow rate is only possible with intrusive methods. This publication introduces a novel approach to measure the current powder mass flow rate at a frequency of 125 Hz. The volumetric powder flow evaluation given by a simple optical sensor concept was transferred to a mass flow rate through mathematical dependencies. They were found experimentally for a nickel-based powder (Inconel 625) and are valid for a wide range of mass flow rates. With this, the dynamic behavior of a vibration powder feeder was investigated and a memory effect dependent on previous powder feeder speeds was discovered. Next, a closed-loop control with the received sensor signal was implemented. The concept as a whole gives a repeatable and accurate powder mass flow rate while being universally retrofittable and applicable. In a final step, the improved dynamic and steady performance of the powder mass flow rate with closed-loop control was validated. It showed a reduction of mean relative errors for step responses of up to 81% compared to the uncontrolled cases.

In recent years, the interest in the improved functionalisation of Additive Manufacturing components through multi-material solutions has increased because of the new possibilities in product design. In this work, an advanced Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing process for fabrication of multi-material structures of different aluminium alloys was investigated. Mechanical properties such as tensile strength, yield strength, fracture elongation, and hardness were analysed for multi-material parts and compared with the mechanical properties of mono-material parts. It was found that the strength of multi-material components was limited by the properties of the individual aluminium alloys and not by those of the material transition zones. Microsections and EDX line scans revealed a smooth transition zone without any significant defects. Furthermore, process monitoring approaches for quality assurance of the correct material composition in such multi-material structures were investigated. Different sensor data were captured during multi-material Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing to identify and observe various characteristics of the process. It was shown that the voltage, current, acoustic, and spectral emission data can be used for in-situ monitoring to detect the chemical differences between the two aluminium alloys 6060 and 5087. Characteristic patterns in the frequency range were found, which can be attributed to a frequency shift that occurred due to the different material properties. Spectral analysis revealed changes in the ratios of green and blue light emission to red light emission, which was also due to the different magnesium contents.

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing is a near-net-shape machining technology that enables low-cost production of large and customised metal parts. In the present work, oxidation effects in Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing of the aluminium alloy AW4043/AlSi5(wt%) were investigated. Two main oxidation effects, the surface oxidation on aluminium parts and the oxidation anomalies in aluminium parts were observed and analysed. The surface oxidation on aluminium parts changed its colour during Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing from transparent to white. In the present work, it was shown by high-speed imaging that this change in the surface oxidation took place in the process zone, which was covered by inert gas. Since the white surface oxidation formed in an inert gas atmosphere, it was found that the arc interacts with the existing amorphous oxide layer of the previously deposited layer and turns it into a white duplex (crystalline and amorphous) oxide layer. In addition to the analysis of the white surface oxidation, oxidation anomalies, which occur at low shielding from the environment, were investigated. It was shown by physical experiments and Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations, that these oxidation anomalies occur at inadequate gas flow rates, too big nozzle-to-work distances, process modes with too high heat input, or too high wire feed rates. Finally, a monitoring method based on light emission spectroscopy was used to detect oxidation anomalies as they create peaks in the spectral emission when they occur.

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing is a near-net-shape processing technology which allows cost-effective manufacturing of large and customized metal parts. Processing of aluminium in Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing is quite challenging, especially in terms of porosity. In the present work, pore behaviour in Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing of AW4043/AlSi5(wt%) was investigated and a post-process monitoring approach was developed. It has been observed that as the shielding gas flow rate increases, the porosity in aluminium parts also increases due to the rapid solidification of the melt pool by forced convection. The higher convection rate seems to limit the escape of gas inclusions. Furthermore, gas inclusions escaping from the melt pool leave cavities on the surface of each deposited layer. Process camera imaging is used to monitor these cavities to acquire information about the porosity in the part. The observations were supported by Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations which show that the gas flow rate correlates with the porosity in aluminium parts manufactured by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing. Since a lower gas flow rate leads to reduced convective cooling, the melt pool remains liquid for a longer period allowing pores to escape for a longer period and thus reducing porosity. Based on these investigations, a monitoring approach is presented.

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing is a near-net-shape processing technology which allows the cost-effective manufacturing of big and customized metal parts. In the present work the Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing of AW4043/AlSi5(wt.%) with different lead angles of the welding torch was investigated. It has been shown that for some lead angles fluctuation effects occur in the structures produced if the interlayer temperature is either too low or too high. All experiments were analysed by high-speed imaging whereby the welding phenomena could be observed. In the case of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing with a lead angle above 10° at lower interlayer temperatures, the deposited track consists out of several, seperated WAAM globules and is no longer in a uniform track. In the case of the dragging and neutral Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing processes at higher interlayer temperatures, fluctuation effects occur. In addition, by evaluating the high-speed videos with computer vision, it was found that such fluctuation effects can be detected at the arc frequency of the process. To avoid fluctuation effects caused by too low or too high interlayer temperatures, a pushing Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing process with a slightly tilted lead angle should be used.

Laser Metal Deposition is a near-net-shape processing technology, which allows remarkable freedom in multi-material processing. In the present work, the multi-material processing of two intermetallic iron aluminides, Fe28Al(at.%) and Fe30Al5Ti0.7B(at.%), was investigated. It has been shown that multi-material processing of the two alloys via discrete as well as via gradual material transition is possible without any cracks for manufacturing small cubes. Cross-sections of manufactured parts and tracks showed that a preheating temperature of at least 400 °C is necessary to process crack free samples. EDX-analyses indicated that if a discrete material transition is required in multi-material processing, the material transition should be implemented in the vertical build-up direction because the mixing zone in this direction is significantly smaller than the mixing zone in the horizontal direction. Due to the stronger mixing effects in the horizontal direction, a gradual material transition by a linear progression should be implemented in this direction rather than in the vertical direction. The mixing effects are mainly caused by melt flow, while diffusion effects can be neglected.