Additive Manufacturing with Multibeam Technology

Electron Beam Melting (EBM) has become an established manufacturing technology for fully dense metal parts with excellent material properties. The parts are built in a vacuum chamber by additive consolidation of thin layers of metal powder. EBM opens up new degrees of freedom in design of complex 3D geometries, e.g. fine network structures, internal cavities and channels. With its production like environment it delivers full traceability from ingot to the final part and do comply with the industrial driven standards for both medical and aerospace applications. A groundbreaking way of improving productivity and surface quality, denominated “Multibeam”, has been implemented in the latest release of the EBM control software. Multibeam is an advanced beam scanning algorithm which makes it possible to keep several melt pools alive simultaneously. This feature speeds up the production rate with more than 30% and yet it improves the surface finish on the final part. The Multibeam technology will be described in detail, with focus on the improved build rate and surface finish in specific production cases.