additive manufacturing with ebm - from...

Additive Manufacturing with EBM- From Process to Production

2015-03-25 12nd International Technological Forum, Rybinsk

Patrik Ohldin, M.Sc.

”Arcam provides cost-efficient Additive Manufacturingsolutions for production of metal components”

Mission statement

Focusing on

• Aerospace components• Orthopedic implants


EBM® - Electron Beam Melting

• The electron beam gun generates ahigh energy beam (up to 3.000 W)

• The beam melts each layer of powder• The beam melts each layer of powdermetal to the desired geometry

• Extremely fast beam translation withno moving parts

• High beam power -> high melt rate(up to 120 cm3/h) and productivity

• Vacuum process -> eliminates impuritiesand yields excellent material properties


and yields excellent material properties

• High process temperature (600 ºCfor titanium) -> low residual stressand no need for heat treatment

Arcam MultiBeam™

• The beam steering coils and electronics facilitate a high beam

translation of up to 8000 m/s.

• The high power electron beam jumps repeatedly between differentmelt pools to keep all of them active.melt pools to keep all of them active.

• This process strategy takes advantage of the high beam power andenables both higher build rate and smoother surfaces.


Keeping multiple melt pools ”alive”!Fast beam jumping

whole sequence << 1 second

Arcam MultiBeam™ process


Advantage of hot processfor bulk melting

Fast beam & higher powerSlow beam Fast beam Fast beam & warm bulk (& lower power)

Surface

Tmelt

Tboil

TempTemp

Tmelt

Tboil

Surface

Melt depth

Surface

Melt depth

Melt depth

Surface

Melt depth

Tmelt

Tboil

TempSurface

Melt depth

Bulk temperature


TimeTime

Melt depth

Time

Increased bulk temperature reduces gradient,allowing for higher speed with preserved quality

Success factors for production

• Reliability - Stable machine systems

Stable manufacturing process

• Economy - High production rate

Competitive powder cost

• Quality - Material quality

Geometric accuracy

Surface quality


• Added values - Freedom in designwith AM Cellular structures

Powder metal

Cellular structures


Courtesy of North Carolina State University

• CE-certified acetabular cups with integratedTrabecular Structures™ since 2007

• Implants with US-FDA clearance since 2010

•

Production case for implants:Acetabular cups in Ti6Al4V

•• > 40,000 cups implanted

• 2% of the global production of acetabularcups is now manufactured with EBM®


Adler Ortho, IT2007-

Lima, IT2007-

Exactech, US2010-

Height ~30 mmDiameter ~50 mm

System and process stability

• The graph below shows development of system reliability forEBM systems in serial production of acetabular cup implantsover more than three years during production ramp up.over more than three years during production ramp up.


based on more than 45.000 running hours

Monthly success rate of production runs from log files from all builds

EBM productivity:stacking of parts

• Cups have excellent geometryfor stacking.

• Production example 80 cups:• Production example 80 cups:

• Non-stacked: 126 h

• Stacked: 82 h

• Build time reduction: ~35%


Production cost of cups

Implants built with EBM

• High productivity

• Excellent material properties• Excellent material properties

• No mechanical support structure (hot process)

• No secondary coating operation


Production case for aerospace:Turbine blades in -TiAl

• Cooperation agreement with Avio Aero (Italy)

• Prototype turbine blades in -TiAl

• 325 mm build height• 325 mm build height

• 180 μm layer thickness

• Dimensional tolerance: 0.1 mm

• Turnaround time: 7,5 h / blade


Courtesy of Avio Aero

Production case for aerospace:Aerofoils for Trent XWB-97

• Project with Rolls-Royce and MTC (UK)

• Prototype aerofoils in titanium(1,5 m diameter and 0,5 m(1,5 m diameter and 0,5 mthick front bearing housingcontaining 48 aerofoils)

• “It is ideal for prototyping.Shortening the manufacturingtime by almost a third givesus more time to design.”

• Flight-test later this year of aTrent XWB-97 engine fitted with"the largest component ever built


"the largest component ever builtusing Additive Manufacturing."

Production focus

• Series production allows process optimization in eachspecific production case (application and geometry)

• Parameters such as layer thickness may for this reason• Parameters such as layer thickness may for this reasonbe different for different production cases

• Arcam actively supports our customers in setting upthe most optimal process for each production case


Overview: Arcam machinegenerations

EBM S12 (2003)S series

Arcam A2 (2008)Arcam A1 (2009)

Arcam A2X

A series

/ A2XX

Arcam A2 derivatives withmodified features


Arcam A2X(2010)

Arcam Q10 (2013) Arcam Q20 (2013)

Q series Currently in production

/ A2XX(2011)

Design for Production

• The Arcam Q10 / Q20 are developed in collaborationwith leading implant and aerospace manufacturers

• Arcam Q10 is the EBM system designated forvolume production of orthopedic implants

• Arcam Q20 is the EBM system designated forvolume production of aerospace components


Arcam Q - Highlights

• New EB gun design

• Improved resolution• Improved resolution

• Higher productivity

• Prevention of operator mistakes

• Inline quality verification

• Closed powder handling


• Software adapted to volume production

New EB gun design

• Use of high brightness cathodes LaB6

• 500+ hours operating time

• Improved beam formation• Improved beam formation

• Improved spot quality at high beam powerenables faster processing of high quality surfaces


Arcam Q20Build time, same part

Higher productivity

Arcam A2XXBuild time, customer part


~ 85 h~ 130 h

Inline quality verification

• Arcam LayerQam™

• Camera-based quality verification system• Camera-based quality verification system

• Additive Manufacturing provides a new melted surface for each layer

• The melting depth is thicker than the layer of powder

• Camera-based monitoring of each melted layer provides porositycontrol of the entire produced part

• Monitoring each layer hence provides a unique capability to verifythe full density of EBM-produced components


the full density of EBM-produced components

Arcam LayerQam™

- demo, sample with deliberately generated defects

Microtomography

Filteredcameraimages


Long-term EBM® development

• Faster processing and Larger build envelope

• The available beam power restricts build area and build rate

• The need for higher electron beam current is thus twofold:

• More power for heating to enable larger build envelope

• More power to enable more Arcam MultiBeam™ spots

• An EU FP7 project, FastEBM, has developed a prototypeelectron gun for EBM with more than three times higherbeam power than for current systems

• The prototype 10 kW gun is under testing on an Arcam Q


• The prototype 10 kW gun is under testing on an Arcam Qplatform to evaluate potential for system development

Contact

Thank you for your attention!

Arcam AB

Krokslätts Fabriker 27A

SE-431 37 Mölndal, Sweden

Phone: +46 31 710 32 00

Web site: www.arcam.com

E-mail: [email protected]

Thank you for your attention!


Arcam - CAD to Metal®

additive manufacturing with ebm - from...

Documents