Abstract:
As a key member connecting large steel structure, multi-directional steel pipe joints carry the forces in all directions of steel buildings and play a crucial role in their safety. Based on structural characteristics of seven-directional steel pipe joints, seven-directional steel pipe joints made by wire and arc additive manufacturing was investigated in the paper, and path planning methods of zonal forming, planar slicing and oscillation and offset filling were used to divide the joints into three zones of straight-arm circular pipe zone, coherent zone and branch extension zone. Coherent zone included three types of two-tube coherent, three-tube coherent and four-tube coherent. The straight-arm circular pipe zone and branch extension zone were stacked by oscillation process, while two-pipe coherent, three-pipe coherent and four-pipe coherent zones were stacked by contour bias filling and hybrid path planning, respectively. The stacked members were tested for forming accuracy, observation of microstructure and measurement of mechanical properties. The results showed that forming dimensional deviation of seven-directional steel pipe joint members was ±1.32 mm, and forming accuracy was high. Microstructure was ferrite and pearlite, and tensile strength and yield strength of the component were increased by about 30% and 105%, respectively, compared with those of castings of the same composition. Seven-directional steel pipe joints made by wire and arc additive manufacturing met the application requirements.