Mon, 05 February, 2024
A 460mm x 190mm titanium frustum of a cone with a wall thickness of 4.5mm was manufactured with less than 2.5 hours of continuous build time. This has the potential to speed up the production of additive manufacturing using the novel coaxial electron beam directed energy deposition wire (DED/w) system from xBeam.
Overview
A frustum of a cone has been built using 3mm Ti-6Al-4V wire from Perrymans Inc. using the xBeam system. This was built to demonstrate the capability of the xBeam system, which has already shown that it has the potential to produce refined 𝛽-grain structures as reported by Davis et al. 2021.
A technical literature review on coaxial DED/w is available to TWI Members. This review builds upon previous extensive technical literature reviews that have been conducted in these areas.
Images are of the frustum of a cone in the ‘as built’ condition.
Objectives
- Develop an enhanced capability and flexibility for large scale additive manufacturing with coaxial-wire DED technology.
- Demonstration of advantages and technology potential.
Summary
Under TWI’s Core Research Programme we have successfully deposited Ti-6Al-4V using 3mm wire to produce large scale builds as well as investigate the mechanical properties of builds via ASTM E8 round bar specimen tensile testing. The results were all above the minimum thresholds specified for the material.
Watch a CGI animation of the xBeam system here:
Contact us
electronbeam@twi.co.uk
Funding for this work has come from TWI’s Core Research Programme for the benefit of TWI Industrial Members, delivered under project 34793. The xBeam system was purchased under the OAAM project, which was supported by Innovate UK (Ref: 113164)