Compared to other metallic additive manufacturing methods, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) has a number of benefits, such as increased material composition flexibility and reduced equipment costs. Improving material quality, minimising defects, increasing manufacturing efficiency, and cutting costs all depend on optimising the WAAM process. Defects like humping, oxidation, and porosity can be caused by difficulties including irregular traverse speed (TS), irregular material flow, and insufficient bead spacing (BS). The goal of this work is to reduce pore size and enhance the wear resistance and nano-hardness (NH) of WAAM-fabricated Al5356 walls by optimising BS in combination with TS and extrusion rates (ERs). The study determined the ideal parameters and found that a 7 mm BS, 50 cm/min TS, and 5 m/min ER decreased the pore radius to 39 µm. This decreases enhanced NH by 69.7% and wear resistance by 72.8%. These ideal parameters were confirmed by nano-indentation topography, and surface examination of worn samples revealed information on the connection between wear behaviour and pore development. The manufacturing of superior components that satisfy the exacting requirements of wear related industrial applications is made possible by these finely tuned characteristics.
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