Development of Novel EBSM System for High-Tech Material Additive Manufacturing Research

Electron beam is more appropriate for metal additive manufacturing (AM) than laser because of its high energy converting efficiency and high absorption for various materials. It becomes a preference for AM study of high-tech material with high melting point, high brittleness or graded material. A novel electron beam selective melting (EBSM) system with dual-material processing capability has been developed in Tsinghua University to meet the wide high-tech material AM research requirement. A vibration driven powder supplier was developed and the supplier had a high compatibility to various powders. A stable supplying rate and a supplying accuracy less than 7.5% were obtained with the supplier. Two powders can be supplied individually to obtain a mixture with tailored proportion for each powder layer. The mixture is homogenous and the actual proportion is close to the desired value. In order to prolong the spreading comb’s lifetime and avoid tooth breaking, a low deformation powder spreading device was designed based on dual inclined combs and a one-way scraping mechanism. The system provides exchangeable building tanks with sizes of 100 ×100 ×100 mm3 and 250 × 250 × 250 mm3, which can save powder when the part is small and the powder is expensive. The novel EBSM system is capable of building parts with single material and has a potential of dual-material processing.