Speaker
Description
The powder bed fusion of metals using an electron beam (PBF-EB/M) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology that offers several advantages over conventional manufacturing methods, such as the possibility for integrated part designs or reduced scrap rates. Among the various AM technologies, PBF-EB/M with its high-power electron beam and its vacuum atmosphere provides a unique opportunity to process refractory metals defect-free. This is due to the possibility of establishing comparably high powder bed temperatures of 1,200 °C and higher, which enable a sufficient melting of the metal powder. A refractory metal of special interest for various industries is tungsten. Its outstanding properties (e.g., high density and low thermal expansion) qualify it for use in harsh environments but make the material hard to process with conventional or other AM methods. The study presents a novel and adapted PBF-EB/M process route for defect-free tungsten processing. High-temperature tensile tests were performed to demonstrate the part performance. The findings emphasized similar static mechanical properties to rolled tungsten. Finally, demonstrators were manufactured to test the capability of the method to produce parts with more complex geometries.