TPM 352 – METALURGI BUBUK DAN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM)

WIDODO WIDJAJA BASUKI

4 OCTOBER 2023
CAMPUS-SEMANGGI, JAKARTA

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA

ATMA JAYA – CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA

www.atmajaya.ac.id
 Electron beam
Electron beam machine uses a
high velocity stream of
electrons focused on the
workpiece surface. An electron
beam gun generates a continuous
stream of electrons that is
accelerated to approximately 75%
of the speed of light and focused
through an electromagnetic lens
on the work surface. The lens is
capable of reducing the area of the
beam to a diameter as small as
0.025 mm (0.001 in). On impinging
the surface, the kinetic energy of
the electrons is converted into
thermal energy of extremely
EBM must be carried out in a vacuum high density that melts or
chamber to eliminate collision of the electrons vaporizes the material in a very
with gas molecules. localized area.

2 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 What is EBM?

Electron beam melting is a powder bed fusion process that employs an

electron beam to selectively melt metal powder layers.
The printing process consists of pre-sintering, melting, solidifying, and
postheating.
To fabricate high-quality EBM parts, the following parameters must be
optimized:
• beam current and focus offset (together determining the spot size,
which can be as small as 0.1mm)
• line offset (regulates the hatch spacing, which is defined as the
distance between two parallel lines of scanning)
• scanning speed
• layer thickness
• scanning strategy.

3 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 Condition and benefit of EBM

❑ Since the energy source is an electron beam, the process

is conducted in a high vacuum (10−4–10−5 mbar) to
prevent air from ionizing and deflecting the electron beam.
❑ Highly advantageous for fabricating powder materials with
a high affinity for oxygen.
❑ An elevated temperature (500–1100 oC) is maintained
within the chamber to minimize residual stress.
Therefore, the in-process distortion, warpage, and even
cracking of the parts can be suppressed to a large extent,
which is beneficial to printing materials prone to cold
cracking, such as γ-TiAl.
❑ It can process materials with high laser reflectivity and
thermal conductivity, such as pure copper.
4 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 Powder
An ideal powder should exhibit
• good flowability (<25 s/50 g),
• high apparent density (over 50% of the density of the bulk material),
• no internal pores from the production process, and no fine particles (<10
μm).
Generally, pre-alloyed powders produced through gas atomization are used in
EBM. The powder particles are spherical, and the standard particle sizes are in
the range of 45–100 μm. The possibility of using powders with smaller particle
sizes (25–45 μm) in EBM was investigated.
It was suggested that the material of the substrate should be identical or similar to
that of the powder because it prevents contamination and ensures proper
bonding.

5 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 The process of EBM
❑ The substrate plate is supported by a powder bed
with a thickness of at least 40mm for heat
insulation to maintain the high building temperature
❑ Heating the substrate plate to sinter the powder bed
surrounding and below the substrate plate to
prevent it from being shifted by the moving rake.
❑ The initial temperature is determined by the powder
characteristics and regulated by the EB power.
❑ A layer of powder is delivered from the powder
hoppers and then spread on the powder bed by the
rake.
❑ Before melting, preheating the powder to a partial
melting (termed pre-sintering) status by rapidly
scanning it with a defocused high-energy beam.
❑ The building platform moves downward by one-
layer thickness for preparing a new powder layer,
and the steps above are repeated again and again.
❑ Afterward, the printed part is retained in the build
chamber to cool it down to a specific temperature
(usually set at ∼200 ∘C).
6 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 Scanning pattern

Zigzag pattern Contour pattern

The default scanning strategy combines the

zigzag and contour patterns in each printing
layer. It typically consists of three contour lines to
trace the outer geometry of the part and zigzag
lines to fill its inner area.

7 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 Influences of process parameters

Each EBM process parameter exerts critical influences on the metallurgical defects,
microstructural features, and surface characteristics of the printed parts.
A contour design was optimized to improve the topographical and microstructural characteristics.
The scanning speed → the most important parameters determining the surface roughness.
The beam current and focus offset influence the porosity of two-contour parts.
Low porosity of the printed parts could be obtained by implementing a high beam current and
a low focus offset, while the scanning speed and beam current could affect their geometrical
characteristics.
8 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 Presintering and melting process

9 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 Metallurgical defects: protrusion & pores
Pores are a major defect in EBM-printed
parts. They are formed through the residual
gas trapped within the powder, lack of
fusion, balling, keyhole formation from
element vaporization, and uneven powder
spreading.
b) Many powder particles attached to the
sides of the cuboid, Ra = 41.1 μm.
c) The protrusion resulted from turbulent melt
pool motion, which was driven by strong
forces induced by temperature gradients,
Marangoni convection, and evaporation.
d) Once a melt pool cannot penetrate the
previously solidified layer, a lack-of-fusion
region may occur with the presence of
some unmelted powder particles, resulting
in irregular pores. During the rapid
solidification process, spherical pores are
formed from gas bubbles (argon) that have
previously been trapped within the powder
particles (during atomization process).

10 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 Metallurgical defects: cracks
Cracking is another concern for EBM-
printed parts, particularly for non-
weldable alloys.
Crack formation in the superalloy
parts requires the presence of liquid
films, and the occurrence of hot
cracking is determined by the degree
of grain boundary misorientation.
Ni–Co–Cr–Mo–Al–Ti–B Hot cracking occurs in the presence
nickel-based superalloy of a liquid film and large thermal
stress.
Moreover, the local enrichment of
trace elements, particularly boron,
plays an important role in stabilizing
the liquid film at temperatures lower
than its theoretical equilibrium solidus
temperature.

11 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 Microstructures and mechanical properties
EBM-printed Ti–6Al–4V alloy Generally, the cooling rate of an EBM-printed
product decreases with the building height, thereby
resulting in an anisotropic microstructure along its
height. Such a transition was accompanied by an
increased thickness. It was suggested that the
relatively high heat conductivity of the substrate had
led to a high degree of super-cooling, resulting in the
equiaxed-to-columnar transition of the grain
morphology. The mechanical properties of the
printed parts vary within them due to the height
dependence of local thermal conditions.
With optimized process parameters, EBM can
produce parts possessing strength and elongation
comparable to those of the wrought products.
As the size of small EBM-printed Ti–6Al–4V parts increases, their strength decreases, and their
ductility increases, which has been attributed to the increase in the thickness of the α lamellae.
EBM-printed Ti–6Al–4V parts were found to exhibit slightly lower yield strength along their
height than across the building plane, which may be explained by their anisotropic
microstructures and the metallurgical bonding defects between the layers.

12 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA
 Microstructures and mechanical properties
Inconel 625

Nickel-based alloys can be categorized into weldable and non-weldable types.

Non-weldable alloys are difficult to process by EBM and LPBF as most contain a
substantial proportion of the γ′ phase (Ni3 (Al, Ti, Nb), which strengthens the
alloy but renders it highly prone to cracking. Among weldable nickel-based
alloys.
Inconel 625 is widely utilized in columnar-grained gas turbines because of its high
Cr content, strength, processability, and corrosion resistance.
13 23-10-04 Widodo Widjaja Basuki – ELECTRON BEAM MELTING (EBM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, ATMA JAYA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA