A Review of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) of Aluminium Composite, Process, Classification, Advantages, Challenges, and Application

Wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a common metal 3D printing technique that offers several benefits, including the high rate of deposition, cheap price, and efficacy for complex parts. Even though WAAM has demonstrated its ability to meet the demands of manufacture components on medium- to-large size made of aluminium for the automotive and other related industries, it cannot currently serve as a complete production procedure due to practical issues such as unmatched mechanical properties and the presence of significant residual stresses. This article reviews the metal matrix composites (MMCs) mixing technique and their critical issues, along with the AM classification, WAAM process with advantages and challenges. It also reviews WAAM of some aluminium metal matrix composites (AMCs) with different reinforcements and power sources. The results of the study on the influence of reinforcement particles on the structure showed that they changed the grain structure from columnar dendrite to equiaxial dendrites after solidification, thereby improving hardness.