Additive Manufacturing with EBM

- The Route to Production

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 1

Mission statement

Arcam develops, manufactures and sells production

technology for Additive Manufacturing in metal

Focusing on

Aerospace components
Orthopedic implants

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 2

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 design

with AM Cellular structures

Metal powder

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 3

EBM production of implants

CE-certified acetabular cups with integrated

Trabecular Structures since 2007
Implants with US-FDA clearance since 2010
> 40,000 cups implanted
2% of the global production of acetabular
cups is now manufactured with EBM

Height ~30 mm
Diameter ~50 mm

Adler Ortho, IT Lima, IT Exactech, US

2007- 2007- 2010-

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 4

3D Cellular Structures

Diamond shape layout

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 5

3D Cellular Structures

Courtesy of North Carolina State University

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 6

Biocompatibility

Pictures of bone growing into EBM-manufactured

titanium implants with Trabecular Structures
Courtesy of Professor Peter Thomsen, MD, Dept. of Biomaterials,
University of Gothenburg.

Acetabular
cup with
porous surface
made with EBM

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 7

System and process stability

The graph below shows development of system reliability for

EBM systems in serial production of acetabular cup implants
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

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 8

Sub-system example:
Powder dispatcher failure rate

Based on ~40.000 running hours in six EBM systems

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 9

EBM Productivity:
Stacking of Parts
Cups have excellent geometry
for stacking.
Production example 80 cups:
Non-stacked: 126 h
Stacked: 82 h
Build time reduction: ~35%

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 10

Production cost of cups

Implants built with EBM

High productivity

Excellent material properties

No mechanical support structure (hot process)

No secondary coating operation

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 11

EBM - Electron Beam Melting

The electron beam gun generates a

high energy beam (up to 3.000 W)

The beam melts each layer of powder

metal to the desired geometry

Extremely fast beam translation with

no moving parts

High beam power -> high melt rate

(up to 80 cm3/h) and productivity

Vacuum process -> eliminates impurities

and yields excellent material properties

High process temperature (650 C

for titanium) -> low residual stress
and no need for heat treatment

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 12

The EBM Machine

EB Gun

Build Chamber Heat Shield

Vacuum build chamber

Powder
Container

Powder Rake

Build Platform

Control Unit
Build Tank

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 13

EBM process: Temp control

To maintain the correct build temperature

in all parts of the geometry throughout
the build, thermal modeling integrated in
the control software dynamically adjusts
speed and current to ensure:
Uniform material properties
No grain growth, e.g. above certain
transformation temperature
Low amount of evaporation of
alloying elements
Dimensional stability
The use of integrated thermal modeling
System interior,
combined with the elevated build heat distribution
temperature are key factors behind the
fast and accurate build process

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 14

 Advantage of hot process
for bulk melting

Slow beam Fast beam

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

Surface

Melt depth

Temp Temp Temp

Surface Surface
T boil T boil T boil
Surface
Melt depth Melt depth
Melt depth
Tmelt Tmelt Tmelt
Surface

Melt depth Bulk temperature

Time Time Time

Increased bulk temperature reduces gradient,

allowing for higher speed with preserved quality

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 15

Production case for aerospace:
Turbine blades in -TiAl
Cooperation agreement with Avio (Italy)
Prototype turbine blades in -TiAl
325 mm build height
Dimensional tolerance: 0.1 mm
Turnaround time: 7,5 h / blade

Courtesy of Avio SpA

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 16

EBM -TiAl: microstructures

Courtesy of Avio SpA

and Politecnico di Torino

As-built by EBM

HIP 1260 C, 1700 bar, 4h

Equiaxed
Grain size <20 m Heat Treatment
Duplex
Lamellar colonies ~100 m
Equiaxed grains ~15 m
Lamellar fraction ~ 40%

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 17

Production focus

Series production allows process optimization in each specific

production case (geometry)
Parameters such as layer thickness may for this reason be
different for different production cases
Arcam actively supports our customers in setting up the most
optimal process for each production case

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 24

Overview: Arcam machine
generations
S-series
EBM S12 (2003)

A-Series
Arcam A1 (2009) Arcam A2 (2008) Arcam A2X / A2XX
A2 derivatives with modified build volumes

Currently in production
Q-Series
Arcam Q10 (2013) Arcam Q20 (2013)

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 25

Arcam Q10 / Arcam Q20

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 26

Design for Production

The Arcam Q10 / Q20 are developed in collaboration

with leading implant and aerospace manufacturers

Arcam Q10 is the EBM system designated for

volume production of orthopedic implants

Arcam Q20 is the EBM system designated for

volume production of aerospace components

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 27

Arcam Q - Highlights

Higher productivity

Improved resolution

Reduced risk of operator mistakes

Quality verification with Arcam LayerQam

Closed powder handling

Software adapted to volume production

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 28

 New EB gun design

Use of high brightness cathodes LaB6

500+ hours operating time in EBM
Single crystalline high brightness filament
State-of-the-art manufacturing
8-10 times higher brightness than W3%Re
1800 K (2600 K)
5-6 W heating power (30 W)
Improved vacuum design
Improved beam formation

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 29

Electron beam size

Improved spot quality at high beam power

enables faster processing of high quality surfaces

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 30

Arcam Q20 vs. Arcam A2XX

Arcam Q20 Arcam A2XX

build time, customer part build time, customer part

~ 85 h ~ 130 h

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 31

New Software

New man-machine interface, with two user modes

Engineering mode
Production mode, fully automated

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 38

Operator Assistance Systems

Prevention of operator mistakes

Automatic measurement of available build height
Detection of powder hopper blinds
Automatic calculation of remaining filament life
Automatic detection of heat shield

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 39

Arcam LayerQam

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 porosity

control of the entire produced part

Monitoring each layer hence provides a unique capability to verify

the full density of EBM-produced components

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 45

Arcam LayerQam
- demo, sample with deliberately generated defects

Filtered
camera
images Micro
tomography

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 46

New Powder Recovery System

Part removal
Automated sifting
Automated refill of powder hoppers

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 47

Streamics (optional add-on)

...is easily integrated in an automation system

and allows centralized processing...

Quality
AM preparation Slice Hatch Build
Control

Build EBM
Magics
processor Control

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 48

EBM and aerospace
- Long-term 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 prototype

electron gun for EBM with more than three times higher
beam power than for current systems

The prototype gun is under testing on an Arcam Q platform

to evaluate potential for system development

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 52

Electron beam
powder interaction model
The FastEBM project also developed
a powder-based interaction model,
based on the Lattice Boltzman Method,
to support EBM process development

Development partner: Erlangen University

Project aim: 2D 3D

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 53

Contact

Thank you for your attention!

Arcam AB
Kroksltts Fabriker 27A
SE-431 37 Mlndal, Sweden
Phone: +46 31 710 32 00
Web site: www.arcam.com
E-mail: info@arcam.com

Arcam - CAD to Metal

2014-05-13 Insight into 3D printing in the aerospace industry 55