Ultrasonic Vibration-Assisted Machining of Invar 36 Alloy Manufactured by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Invar 36, known for its low coefficient of thermal expansion, is widely used in applications like composite moulds, electronics, and optics. Although Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) offers high deposition rates and cost-effectiveness for Invar 36, it creates rough surface textures requiring machining as post-processing. In order to overcome Invar 36′s machinability challenges, Ultrasonic Vibration-Assisted Machining (UVAM) was applied for the first time on WAAM-fabricated Invar 36. The results showed that UVAM outperformed conventional machining in terms of cutting force, surface roughness and topography, subsurface microhardness and tool wear with improvements observed in both building and deposition directions. © 2025 CIRP