JMEPEG (2021) 30:7472–7478 ÓASM International

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-021-05905-y 1059-9495/$19.00

Arc Additively Manufactured 5356 Aluminum Alloy

with Cable-Type Welding Wire: Microstructure
and Mechanical Properties
Jiankun Wang, Qingkai Shen, Xiangdong Kong, and Xizhang Chen

Submitted: 14 August 2020 / Revised: 15 April 2021 / Accepted: 23 April 2021 / Published online: 27 May 2021

Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is the latest development in 3D printing because of its high build
rate. This study investigated the first use of cable-type welding wire (CWW) to manufacture thin-walled
AA5356 aluminum alloy through cold metal transfer technology. The inherent advantages of the CCW,
such as high deposition efficiency, energy savings, and better stirring of the weld puddle due to arc rotation,
were tapped and analyzed for WAAM. The experimental results showed that WAAM CWW provides
enhanced quality built parts. The grain morphology, phase in micro-constituents, and defect formation
were investigated through structured optical micrography and XRD analyses. The mechanical test was also
performed along and normal to the build direction. The optical microscopy results showed that a defect free
deposit with equiaxed grains was formed. Compared with the casting aluminum alloy, the average ultimate
tensile strength and yield strength of the parts made by the WAAM with CWW increased by 19.8% and
22.5%, respectively.

by WAAM is significantly better than that of conventional

Keywords aluminum alloy, cable-type welding wire, mechanical
properties, microstructure, wire arc additive
manufacturing
1. Introduction
Additive manufacturing (AM) technology can produce
complex parts without relying on molds. Therefore, additive
manufacturing is increasingly used in precision parts, ship-
building, aerospace, and other fields. Scholars are also trying to
achieve higher precision and size to meet the requirements of
parts (Ref 1, 2). The additive manufacturing of metallic
materials builds 3D products by depositing layers of molten
metal via welding wire or metal powder. Common heat sources
are laser (Ref 3, 4), electron beam (Ref 5), and electric arc (Ref
6, 7). Compared with a laser and electron beam, CMT’s droplet
transfer is more stable, and it is suitable for the additive
manufacturing of aluminum alloys. Compared with traditional
additive manufacturing routes, WAAM has the advantages of
high deposition efficiency, high material utilization, large size
of manufactured parts, and low equipment costs (Ref 8, 9).
Because of these advantages, WAAM has attracted more and
more attention.
In recent years, many researchers have conducted a lot of
research on the WAAM of aluminum alloys. Su et al. (Ref 10)
studied the influence of heat input on the microstructure and
mechanical properties of aluminum alloy forming modes and
concluded that the performance of aluminum alloy parts made
Jiankun Wang, Qingkai Shen, Xiangdong Kong, and
Xizhang Chen, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering,
Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325000, China. Contact e-mail:
kernel.chen@gmail.com.
casting parts. Zhang et al. (Ref 11) used a variable polarity cold
metal transfer (VP-CMT) arc power supply and different arc
modes for AM of Al-6Mg alloy parts. Experiments showed that
uniform equiaxed crystals can be obtained in a VP-CMT mode.
Wang et al. (Ref 12) showed that by feeding ER5356 welding
wire and adding titanium powder, Al-Mg alloy thin-walled
parts could be manufactured by welding wire + arc additive
manufacturing (WAAM). The authors reported that the internal
crystal morphology changed from columnar to equiaxed
crystal, and the mechanical properties were improved.
As a new type of wire that has emerged in recent years and
been widely studied, CWW is generally composed of 7 fine
wires twisted together, with one wire in the middle as the
central wire and six wires twisted and wound around the central
wire. Fig. 1(b) shows the 3D model of CWW. It has been
demonstrated for various arc welding processes (including
electrogas welding) and, when compared to a solid single-wire,
has the advantages of high deposition efficiency, self-rotation of
welding arc, and energy savings. Chen et al. (Ref 13, 14) found
that the cable wire deposition rate was 40% higher than that of
the monofilament under the same conditions, which improved
the welding quality. Due to the agitation of the molten pool by
the rotating arc, the superheated droplets are transferred directly
to the side wall or the molten pool near the side wall, promoting
the heating and melting of the base material. Yang et al. (Ref
15) used CWW and analyzed the influence of arc pressure,
rotation force, and welding parameters on metal transfer in the
process of using CWW. They proposed that the arc pressure
and rotation force facilitate metal transfer and increase the
transfer frequency of the droplets. Fang et al. (Ref 16) studied
the application of CWW in submerged arc welding, and the
results showed that CWW not only had high welding efficiency,
but also the strong stirring effect of the CWW submerged arc
surfacing induced by the rotating arc gave rise to a finer and
more uniform microstructure and larger hardness in the
surfacing layer.

7472—Volume 30(10) October 2021 Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Fig. 1 (a) Schematic diagram of the WAAM-CMT process, (b) CCW 3D model diagram, (c) schematic diagram of an AM part showing the
positions of the tensile test samples and metallographic and hardness sample, (d) the size of tensile test samples in mm
The literature indicates that CWW is more advantageous
than a single solid wire electrode and has attracted significant
interest in the area of welding. So far, WAAM has rarely
reported the use of CWW. This paper reports a novel work in
which CWW was utilized for WAAM, and the mechanical
properties and microstructure of the printed workpiece were
investigated.
2. Experiment
2.1 Materials
The 6061-T6 aluminum alloy plate with a size of 250 9 180
9 10 mm3 was used as a substrate. Before deposition, the
working face of the substrate was polished with sandpaper and
the surface was cleaned with acetone. AA5356 aluminum alloy
CWW with a 1.6 mm diameter was employed as the filling
material (elemental composition of the wire and forming
substrate are given in Table 1).
2.2 Layer Deposition
The experiments were performed on a WAAM-CMT system
(Fig. 1a), which mainly consists of a six-axis Fanuc robot, robot
control cabinet, Fronius CMT-Advance power source, wire
Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance
feeding system, and shielding gas system. High purity
(99.99%) argon gas was used as the shielding gas. The contact
tube-to-work distance (CTWD) was kept at 18 mm. The
process parameters are shown in Table 2. The thin wall has a
total of 40 layers, and each layer is composed of two welding
seams. During the printing process, a high-speed camera with a
frame rate of 1000 frames per second was used to capture
images to observe the state of the welding wire and weld pool.
2.3 Testing and Characterization
The tensile tests of the parts made of WAAM were carried
out in two directions, parallel to the substrate (sample 1) and
perpendicular to the substrate (sample 2), as shown in Fig. 1(a).
The tensile test sample size is shown in Fig. 1(d). Samples for
the microstructural analysis and microhardness measurement
were taken from the transverse cross section removed from the
center of the built column, as shown in Fig. 1(c). The phase
analysis of the sample was carried out with a (Bruker D8
advance) x-ray diffractometer (XRD). The XRD sample was
polished with sandpaper. The scanning speed was 4°/min, and
the scanning range was 20° to 90° with Cu Ka radiation. Before
metallographic observation, the sample needed to be polished
and then etched with HF solutions for 10 s. The morphology,
defects, and fracture of the samples were characterized by a
CVOK 4XC-TV optical microscope (OM) and Phenom-XL
Volume 30(10) October 2021—7473
Table 1 Compositions of the substrate and wire (wt.%)
Composition Mg Si Fe Cu Mn Cr Ti Al

5356 4.5-5.5 < 0.25 < 0.40 < 0.1 0.05-0.20 0.05-0.20 0.06-0.20 Balance
6061-T6 0.8-1.2 0.4-0.8 0.7 0.15-0.4 0.05-0.2 0.04-0.35 0.15 Balance

Table 2 Welding data
Parameters Parameter set
Wire feed rate, (m/min) 6.5
Travel speed, (mm/s) 10.0
Current range, (A) 140-150
Arc voltage, (V) 18-20
Shielding gas flow, (L/min) 25
Waiting interval, (s) 30
Arc mode CMT
Weld spacing, (mm) 3.5
scanning electron microscope (SEM). A HXD-1000TM/LCD
digital microhardness tester was used for hardness testing. The
hardness test was performed with a load of 1.96 N and held for
15 s. The tensile test was carried out at room temperature at a
loading rate of 1.0 mm/min using a universal electric-mechan-
ical testing machine (Hualong WDW-100).
3. Results and Discussion
3.1 High-Speed Camera Observation
During the process of WAAM, a high-speed camera was
used to observe the state of the molten pool and transfer of the
molten metal droplets. As shown in Fig. 2, the typical process
of CMT (Ref 17) can be seen: arc ignition, droplet formation,
short circuit, and wire retraction. These four steps continuously
loop. The cable welding wire is composed of 7 filaments.
Compared with the previous single-stranded wire (Ref 18, 19),
the printing efficiency is higher, and it is easier to melt and
produce larger droplets (as shown in Fig. 1b). The wire moves
toward the weld pool and sends the melting droplets and wire
into the molten pool via short circuit transfer. The wire retracts
to separate the melt droplets. The whole process is very
stable without a lot of splashes. The shape of the molten pool is
also relatively stable, which has a positive effect on the
formation of components.
3.2 Macroscopic Morphology and Microstructure
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that the surface of the sample is
relatively smooth without any visible defects. However, the
upper heat dissipation speed is slow, and the boundary between
layers is not clear. Because the bottom part is directly connected
with the substrate and the substrate lies on the workbench, the
heat dissipation speed is fast. So, the lines between the bottom
layers are clear, and the height of each layer is relatively
stable at 2.2 mm. The thickness is about 13 mm (Fig. 4).
However, as the deposition height increases, the rate of heat
dissipation decreases, and the thickness of each layer is
1.75 mm. It is found that the area with good heat dissipation
at the bottom region is mainly composed of fine equiaxed
grains. Because of the low efficiency of heat dissipation in the
middle region and the continuous heat transfer from the top
region to the middle region, the grains in the middle region are
coarser. The rate of heat dissipation in the top region is further
reduced, which results in higher heat accumulation leading to
coarser grain size than that in the middle region. As shown in
Fig. 5, there are many pores and microcracks at the interface of
the adjacent layers, which will adversely impact the mechanical
properties of the sample. In the portion close to the substrate,
the heat input during printing is easily dissipated through the
substrate. But as the height of deposition increases, the
accumulated thickness between layers increases, and the heat
accumulation becomes more serious. This can easily lead to
deviations in the cooling rate of the material, resulting in small
holes and cracks. The XRD pattern (as shown in Fig. 6) shows
that the sample is mainly composed of a phase Al and b phase
Al3Mg2. It can be seen from the diffraction peak that the
positions of Al and Al3Mg2 are the same in the sample, the
diffraction peak of Al in the top region is the highest, the
crystallinity of Al in the middle region is the best, and there is
no significant difference in the other positions.
3.3 Microhardness
The microhardness schematic diagram of 5356 aluminum
alloy thin-walled components manufactured by WAAM is
shown in Fig. 7. The average hardness is 73.9 HV. The average
hardness of the top, middle, and bottom regions shows that the
average hardness of the bottom area is the highest, followed by
the middle, and the lowest hardness is in the top region. It is
mainly because the bottom regionÕs grains are small, making
the hardness higher. It appears to be due to the fact that the
bottom layer is deposited on the base plate, which helps
dissipate heat at a faster rate. The middle portion, being
sandwiched between the bottom and top layers, remains hottest.
The top layer, being open to air, dissipates heat faster than the
middle. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that, although the upper,
middle, and lower grain sizes are somewhat different, they are
all the same FCC phase.
3.4 Tensile Properties
According to the tensile test (Table 3), the top region
transverse ultimate tensile stress (UTS) is 244.4 MPa, the yield
stress (YS) is 111 MPa, and the elongation (EL) is about
25.9%. The middle transverse UTS is 263.6 MPa, the YS is
114.3 MPa, and the EL is about 24.9%. The bottom transverse
UTS is 284.4 MPa, the YS is 116.1 MPa, and the EL is about
25.8%. The specimen from the bottom section has a higher
UTS than the top and middle parts, but the EL is not as good.
This is because the heat dissipation conditions of the top,
middle, and bottom layers affect the tensile properties. The
longitudinal UTS is 220.0 MPa, the YS is 88.5 MPa, and the
EL is 19.4%. The strength of the longitudinal tensile samples is

7474—Volume 30(10) October 2021 Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Fig. 2 High-speed camera images of droplet transfer

Compared to the as cast aluminum alloy, the average UTS and

YS of the parts made by the WAAM with CWW increased by
19.8% and 22.5%, respectively.

3.5 Fracture Analysis

In order to find out the reasons for the differences in the
tensile properties of the samples in different regions, the
fracture surface of the tensile samples was analyzed through
SEM images (as shown in Fig. 8). The fracture morphology of
the CWW sample is a typical dimple fracture, which is a tough
fracture. Literature (Ref 22) shows that due to the presence of
second phase particles, dents will be formed under tension. The
presence of second phase particles may have contributed to the
dimpled fracture surface. It can be seen from the pit size that the
Fig. 3 Block samples fabricated by CMT-WAAM
pits in the bottom area are uniform and small, which makes the
bottom area have a very good UTS. The pits in the top and
middle regions are larger than the pits in the bottom region, and
slightly lower than the transverse samples, which may be due to
the pit depth is deeper than that in the top region, so its EL is
the existence of some pores and cracks between the layers, as
better, but its UTS is slightly less than the top region. This
shown in Table 3, which will adversely impact the tensile
phenomenon may be caused by heat accumulation and poor
properties. From the data of the tensile test, it can be seen that
heat dissipation in the top and middle regions, leading to the
the performance of the parts made by WAAM and using 5356
aggregation and growth of second phase particles, resulting in
aluminum magnesium alloy CWW is better than that of the as
larger dents, while the bottom has better dents. When the
casting 5356 aluminum magnesium alloy. According to Gao
sample temperature decreases, the second particles are still
et al. (Ref 20), the UTS of as cast 5356 aluminum alloy is
dispersed in the aluminum alloy in the form of fine particles.
202.4 MPa, the YS is 87.2 MPa, and the EL is 23.8%.

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Fig. 4 The longitudinal section microscopic appearances of the
different parts
Fig. 5 Pores and cracks at the interlayer region
7476—Volume 30(10) October 2021
Fig. 6 The XRD results of different parts of the WAAM-CMT
aluminum alloy
The size and density of the second phase particles significantly
affect the size and density of the pits (Ref 23). A large number
of pores and cracks are clearly visible on the fracture surface of
the vertical tensile specimen (as shown in Fig. 8d), which is the
reason for the poor vertical tensile performance caused by the
interlayer defect.
4. Conclusion
In this study, 5356 aluminum alloy CWW was used for
WAAM, and the alloy macro morphology, microstructure, and
mechanical properties of the thin wall were analyzed. The top,
middle, and bottom regions of the thin wall were compared.
The following conclusions can be drawn from this study:
(1) It is feasible to use WAAM with CWW to fabricate alu-
minum alloy 5356. The properties of the metal thin wall
are better than that of the casting aluminum magnesium
alloy.
(2) The heat accumulation and slow heat dissipation in the
upper and middle parts of the sample lead to the coarse-
ness of the grains, and the heat dissipation at the bottom
through the substrate is faster, and smaller grains are ob-
tained.
(3) The average value of the hardness test is 73.85 HV. The
hardness of the bottom is the highest, the middle is the
second highest, and the top is the lowest.
(4) In the tensile test, the properties of the upper and middle
tensile specimens are similar. The ultimate tensile
strength and yield strength of the lower part are better
than those of the rest of the parts, but the toughness is
poor. Because of the defects between layers, the proper-
ties of the vertical specimens are significantly lower than
that of the transverse specimens.
(5) Through this experiment, it is proven that heat input will
affect the microstructure and mechanical properties of
the aluminum alloy. Therefore, if the cooling rate of alu-
minum alloy is reasonably controlled in AM, parts with
different properties will be obtained, which provides a
new strengthening idea for researchers.
Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance
Fig. 7 The microhardness of the sample for the different regions

Table 3 Tensile properties of the CCW WAAM 5356 alloy

Specimen Yield strength ry, MPa Ultimate tensile strength rmax, MPa Elongation ep, %

Top 111.1 ± 2.9 244.4 ± 6.4 25.9 ± 0.4

Middle 114.3 ± 2.1 263.6 ± 4.0 24.9 ± 1.7
Bottom 116.1 ± 4.0 284.4 ± 8.2 23.8 ± 1.3
Vertical 85.4 ± 3.1 220.0 ± 4.8 19.3 ± 0.1
Solid wire (Ref 21) 113 226 29.8
Casting (Ref 20) 87.16 202.35 23.78

Acknowledgements
This project is supported by National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (Grant No. 51975419).

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