Electron Beam Wire Deposition Technology and Its Application

This chapter introduces the concept of the electron beam wire deposition technology. At the same time, the technical features and advantages of the technology have been introduced. Also in this chapter, the principles and characteristics of this technology have been introduced. At the last, the current status and development trends at home and abroad have been introduced.

This chapter introduces structure and principle of Electron Beam Wire Deposition (EBWD) Equipment. At the same time, an overview of equipment at home and abroad has been done. The homemade equipment has been introduced in detailed such as Inverter Power Supply, Electron Beam Gun, Vacuum System and Its Control, Wire Feeding System and Its Control, Three-Dimensional Workbench, Image Monitoring and Acquisition System, Electrical Control System and Data Processing Software—Electron Beam RP, etc.

This chapter mainly deals with the issues concerning materials used in EBWD technology. A brief introduction on the present status of materials used for EBWD investigations was given at the beginning of this chapter. Following that, characteristics, technical requirements and manufacturing methods of feeding wires used for EBWD technology are proposed and discussed. After that, the main technical features of typical EBWD deposits, namely burn loss of alloying elements, anisotropy of mechanical properties, macrostructure characterized by columnar crystals and “three zones and two lines”, are introduced separately in different sections. For the aim of properly matching the different mechanical properties of EBWD parts, researching results on effects of alloying element content, depositing beam current and heat treatment schedules on microstructure and mechanical properties of EBWD Ti–6Al–4V deposits are introduced and discussed. Based on which, methods for tailoring of mechanical properties of EBWD products similar to Ti–6Al–4V alloy are proposed. Near the end of this chapter, new findings on fracture modes and deformation mechanism in tensile tests of EBWD Ti–6Al–4V are illustrated. In the end of this chapter, several materials developed and certified to be suitable for EBWD use are introduced and typical mechanical properties of their EBWD deposits are listed. The primary intention of the present chapter is to give a preliminary understanding of the EBWD technology and its typical products for the beginners and potential users interested in this technical field.

This chapter introduces the fundamentals of electron beam wire deposition technology, such as the behavior of the molten pool during the deposition process, numerical simulation of the EBWD process, temperature field characteristics of the molten pool under the wire-free technology and impact of wire deposition on the temperature field of the molten pool, etc. The fundamentals of the process technique of the EBWD, such as prototyping process control, types of defects and control methods,deformation control, etc. have been introduced.

This chapter introduces the non-destructive inspection technology of EBWD-fabricated typical metal parts, such as Titanium alloy and A100 steel. Acoustic characteristics and defect characteristics of TC4 Titanium Alloy and A100 steel Fabricated by EBWD have studied. At the same time, the different methods such as the ultrasonic inspection, the magnetic particle testing and X-ray inspection have been used for non-destructive inspection of A100 steel.

This chapter introduces the fundamentals of EBWD manufacturing of TC18 titanium alloy. It’s consisted of microstructure characteristics of both deposited state and heat-treated state and properties control. At the same time, typical mechanical properties such as the static property, high cycle fatigue property, corrosion fatigue property, etc. have been introduced in this chapter.

This chapter introduces the fundamentals of EBWD manufacturing of A-100 steel. It’s consisted of microstructure characteristics of both deposited state and heat-treated state, properties control, typical defects and control methods. At the same time, typical mechanical properties such as the static property, fatigue property, etc. have been introduced in this chapter.

This chapter introduces fundamentals of electron beam wire deposition hybrid prototyping technology. Microstructure characteristics of TC4-DT titanium alloy fabricated by electron beam wire deposition hybrid prototyping have been studied in this chapter. At the same time, the mechanical properties of hybrid-fabricated titanium alloy components and the defect control of fording-EBWD structures have been investigated.