AccScience Publishing / MSAM / Volume 4 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.36922/MSAM025220046
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Study on the printing stability of Invar 36 alloy under different process parameter conditions in gas metal arc additive manufacturing

Giulio Mattera*1* ,  Elena Manoli1 ,  Luigi Nele1
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1 Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
MSAM 2025, 4(4), 025220046 https://doi.org/10.36922/MSAM025220046
Received: 30 May 2025 | Accepted: 3 July 2025 | Published online: 24 September 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Invar 36, a nickel–iron alloy distinguished by its low coefficient of thermal expansion, is a material of significant interest for high-precision applications in aerospace, moulds used in composite material fabrication processes and metrology. This work investigates the stability of depositing Invar 36 through gas metal arc additive manufacturing (GMA-AM), also known as wire arc additive manufacturing, with a focus on identifying process conditions, in a standard gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process, that promote consistent and defect-minimised builds. A series of experiments was conducted to assess the effects of key process parameters – including wire feed speed, welding speed and arc voltage – on deposition stability. Stability was evaluated through geometrical consistency of the deposited walls, arc behaviour and visual inspection of process-induced anomalies such as spatter and lack of fusion. This study presents a novel methodology to quantitatively assess the stability of the GMA-AM process, along with the construction of a process map specifically tailored for the Invar 36 alloy. The insights gained contribute to advancing the understanding of wire-based additive manufacturing of Invar 36, which is still understudied, and provide a foundation for further investigations into its mechanical performance and microstructural evolution under optimised process parameter conditions.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Invar 36
Gas metal arc additive manufacturing
Process stability
Wire arc additive manufacturing
Deposition quality
Process parameters
Funding
Not applicable
Conflict of interest
Dr. Giulio Mattera serves as the Editorial Board Member of the journal but did not in any way involve in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. Other authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing, Electronic ISSN: 2810-9635 Published by AccScience Publishing
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