[Industrialization Company Dynamics] China Successfully Breaks Through Large Format Metal 3D Printing Electron Gun Array Scanning Technology

On November 30, 2021,Tianjin Qingyan Zhibeam Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Qingyan Zhibeam"), an industrialization company of our hospital, completed the printing of titanium alloy parts with a diameter of 400mm by using a 2 × 2 electron gun array independently developed by our country.It marks that China has taken the lead in realizing large format electron gun array scanning in the world, which has laid a solid foundation for the further realization of large size electron beam selective melting (EBSM) technology.
 

 
Titanium alloy parts prepared by electron gun array scanning (diameter 400mm)
 

Electron beam selective melting (Electron Beam Selective Melting,EBSM) is a powder bed melting additive manufacturing technology based on high-energy electron beam, which can be used for the processing and manufacturing of complex overall structures such as hollow, porous and grid, and realize the lightweight and high performance of product structure.
EBSM technology has the characteristics of high energy efficiency, high power, high powder bed temperature, low internal stress and so on. It can realize the additive manufacturing of high-performance and difficult-to-process complex components such as titanium alloy, titanium aluminum alloy, high-temperature alloy, refractory metal, etc. It has high forming efficiency and low cost, and can meet the rapid response manufacturing needs of large-scale mass production and emergency conditions, it has been used in the large-scale manufacturing of metal parts in aerospace, medical equipment and other industries in Europe and the United States. However, the difficulty of EBSM equipment and process is high, only a few countries have mastered it at present, and they are all single electron gun technology, with small forming width and limited size of forming parts, which is difficult to meet the needs of aerospace large-scale component manufacturing.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Qingyan Zhibeam cooperated with Tsinghua University, Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units to undertake the key research and development plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology for additive manufacturing and laser manufacturing.High-power, long-life, multi-mode electron gun and array development and application in additive manufacturing"The project. With the support of the project, it broke through the design and manufacturing technology of domestic long-life and high-stability electron gun, and successfully developed a large-format EBSM research and verification prototype equipped with 2 × 2 electron gun array, which solved the technical problems of interference between guns, scanning splicing, multi-gun integration, etc.After the hard work of the project team, the EBSM forming of large-size titanium alloy parts based on electron gun array was realized for the first time in the world, which made our country in the forefront of the world in this field.

 
 
Large format EBSM research and verification prototype equipped with 2 × 2 electron gun array (scanning format 430mm × 430mm)
 

The breakthrough of electron gun array technology not only means that my country has made key technological progress in large-size EBSM additive manufacturing technology, but also shows that my country has fully mastered EBSM technology, especially the high-precision and high-reliability that EBSM industrial applications rely on. The electronic gun system realizes independent control, which provides a guarantee for the industrial application of EBSM, an efficient and high-performance additive manufacturing technology in my country.
The project leader--The cathode life of the 3kW single crystal cathode electron gun independently developed by Tianjin Qingyan Zhibeam Technology Co., Ltd. has reached more than 800 hours, reaching the level of similar products in the world.At the same time, in order to ensure the scanning of the electron gun array, the company has also developed functions such as electron gun state monitoring, electron gun self-diagnosis and self-recovery, and real-time correction of processing parameters to ensure the stable operation of multi-gun complex systems.
Qing Yan Zhi Shu was established in 2015. Relying on Tianjin High-end Equipment Research Institute of Tsinghua University, it focuses on EBSM technology. It has launched three series of 6 models of domestic EBSM equipment for customers such as scientific research institutions, orthopedic medical device manufacturing enterprises and aerospace manufacturing enterprises, which have been applied and fully recognized by mainstream enterprises at home and abroad.Among them, QBEAMAreo350-700 is currently the world's largest commercial EBSM equipment, with a maximum forming size of 350mm × 350mm × 700mm, and it only takes 130 hours to print 620mm high parts. 
The rapid promotion of commercial EBSM equipment and the breakthrough of electron gun array technology indicate that Qingyan Zhibeam has made important progress in the industrial application of electron beam selective melting metal additive manufacturing technology, and has gradually established independent control and independent innovation. The technology system provides a strong guarantee for the popularization and application of additive manufacturing technology in related fields in my country.



 

Source | Antarctic Bear 3D Printing Network