ADVANCED ELECTRON BEAM EQUIPMENT OPENING NEW PROSPECTS FOR THE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Further expansion of industrial application of additive manufacturing technologies requires equipment which provides rapid and accurate production of large-scale 3D parts. Electron beam free form fabrication concept has been always considered as the most prospective solution especially for reactive materials such as titanium alloys, titanium aluminides, niobium alloys and others.

New generation of electron beam additive manufacturing systems of direct deposition class on the base of special gas-discharge electron beam guns will be presented.

Approved advantages of gas-discharge EB guns such as wide range of permissible operating conditions, simple and compact design, easy maintenance procedure, extremely long life time of cold cathodes may make additive manufacturing technology more obtainable for customers and more suitable for routine industrial production. Unique features of new electron beam additive manufacturing process provide forming of very fine and accurate 3D objects resulting in significant reduction of finishing. In addition special physical conditions of metal deposition provided by new method may allow receiving of new properties of produced materials.