Sirris Workshop - Additive manufacturing in aviation and aerospace 13/05/2014

1. Additive Manufacturing with EBM
- The Route to Production
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2. ”Arcam develops, manufactures and sells production
technology for Additive Manufacturing in metal”
Mission statement
Focusing on
• Aerospace components
• Orthopedic implants
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3. 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
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• Added values - Freedom in design
with AM Cellular structures
Metal powder

4. • CE-certified acetabular cups with integrated
Trabecular Structures™ since 2007
• Implants with US-FDA clearance since 2010
•
EBM® production of implants
•
• > 40,000 cups implanted
• 2% of the global production of acetabular
cups is now manufactured with EBM®
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Adler Ortho, IT
2007-
Lima, IT
2007-
Exactech, US
2010-
Height ~30 mm
Diameter ~50 mm

5. 3D Cellular Structures
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Diamond shape layout

6. 3D Cellular Structures
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Courtesy of North Carolina State University

7. 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.
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Acetabular
cup with
porous surface
made with EBM
University of Gothenburg.

8. 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.over more than three years during production ramp up.
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based on more than 45.000 running hours
Monthly success rate of production runs from log files from all builds

9. Sub-system example:
Powder dispatcher failure rate
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Based on ~40.000 running hours in six EBM systems

10. EBM Productivity:
Stacking of Parts
• Cups have excellent geometry
for stacking.
• Production example 80 cups:• Production example 80 cups:
• Non-stacked: 126 h
• Stacked: 82 h
• Build time reduction: ~35%
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11. Production cost of cups
Implants built with EBM
• High productivity
• Excellent material properties• Excellent material properties
• No mechanical support structure (hot process)
• No secondary coating operation
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12. 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• 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
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and yields excellent material properties
• High process temperature (650 ºC
for titanium) -> low residual stress
and no need for heat treatment

13. The EBM® Machine
EB Gun
Heat Shield
Powder Rake
Powder
Container
Build Chamber
Vacuum build chamber
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Powder Rake
Build Platform
Control Unit
Build Tank

14. • To maintain the correct build temperature
in all parts of the geometry throughout
the build, thermal modeling integrated in
the control software dynamically adjusts
EBM® process: Temp control
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
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• Dimensional stability
• The use of integrated thermal modeling
combined with the elevated build
temperature are key factors behind the
fast and accurate build process
System interior,
heat distribution

15. Advantage of hot process
for bulk melting
Fast beam & higher powerSlow beam Fast beam Fast beam & warm bulk (& lower power)
Surface
Tmelt
Tboil
TempTemp
Tmelt
Tboil
Surface
Melt depth
Surface
Melt depth
Melt depth
Surface
Melt depth
Tmelt
Tboil
Temp
Surface
Melt depth
Bulk temperature
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TimeTime
Melt depth
Time
Increased bulk temperature reduces gradient,
allowing for higher speed with preserved quality

16. 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
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Courtesy of Avio SpA

17. EBM® -TiAl: microstructures
Courtesy of Avio SpA
and Politecnico di Torino
As-built by EBM
HIP 1260 C, 1700 bar, 4h
Equiaxed 
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Equiaxed 
Grain size <20 m Heat Treatment
Duplex
Lamellar colonies ~100 m
Equiaxed grains ~15 m
Lamellar fraction ~ 40%

18. Production focus
• Series production allows process optimization in each specific
production case (geometry)
• Parameters such as layer thickness may for this reason be• 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
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19. Overview: Arcam machine
generations
EBM S12 (2003)
S-series
Arcam A2 (2008)Arcam A1 (2009) Arcam A2X / A2XX
A2 derivatives with modified build volumes
A-Series
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Arcam Q10 (2013) Arcam Q20 (2013)
Q-Series
Currently in production

20. Arcam Q10 / Arcam Q20
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21. 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
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22. Arcam Q - Highlights
• Higher productivity
• Improved resolution• Improved resolution
• Reduced risk of operator mistakes
• Quality verification with Arcam LayerQam™
• Closed powder handling
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• Closed powder handling
• Software adapted to volume production

23. • Use of high brightness cathodes LaB6
• 500+ hours operating time in EBM
• Single crystalline high brightness filament
New EB gun design
• 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
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24. Electron beam size
• Improved spot quality at high beam power
enables faster processing of high quality surfaces
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25. Arcam Q20
build time, customer part
Arcam Q20 vs. Arcam A2XX
Arcam A2XX
build time, customer part
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~ 85 h ~ 130 h

26. New Software
• New man-machine interface, with two user modes
• Engineering mode
• Production mode, fully automated• Production mode, fully automated
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27. Operator Assistance Systems
• Prevention of operator mistakes
• Automatic measurement of available build height
• Detection of powder hopper blinds• Detection of powder hopper blinds
• Automatic calculation of remaining filament life
• Automatic detection of heat shield
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28. Arcam LayerQam™
• Camera-based quality verification system
• Additive Manufacturing provides a new melted surface for each layer• 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
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29. Arcam LayerQam™
- demo, sample with deliberately generated defects
Micro
tomography
Filtered
camera
images
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30. New Powder Recovery System
• Part removal
• Automated sifting
• Automated refill of powder hoppers• Automated refill of powder hoppers
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31. Streamics™ (optional add-on)
• “...is easily integrated in an automation system
and allows centralized processing...”
Magics
Build
processor
AM preparation Slice Hatch Build
Quality
Control
EBM
Control
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32. 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
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• The prototype gun is under testing on an Arcam Q platform
to evaluate potential for system development

33. Electron beam –
powder interaction model
• The FastEBM project also developed
a powder-based interaction model,
based on the Lattice Boltzman Method,based on the Lattice Boltzman Method,
to support EBM process development
• Development partner: Erlangen University
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• Project aim: 2D  3D

34. Contact
Thank you for your attention!
Arcam AB
Krokslätts Fabriker 27A
SE-431 37 Mölndal, Sweden
Phone: +46 31 710 32 00
Web site: www.arcam.com
E-mail: info@arcam.com
Thank you for your attention!
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Arcam - CAD to Metal®