Original Title: Breakthrough in Additive Manufacturing Technology for Ti-6Al-4V Electron Beam Fuse On May 11, 2021, the Antarctic Bear learned that recently, Xi'an Zhirong Metal Printing System Co., Ltd. (Xi'an Zhirong) announced that it had made a breakthrough in the manufacturing technology of titanium alloy electron beam fuse additives, mastered the combination of printing process parameters to achieve excellent mechanical properties, especially high fatigue properties, and achieved excellent mechanical properties. It lays a solid foundation for the application of electron beam fuse metal additive manufacturing technology in large aviation titanium alloy load-bearing structural parts. At the end of 2020, Xi'an Zhirong commissioned Shenyang Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, to carry out X-ray flaw detection and high-cycle fatigue limit test under different directions and stress ratios by using Ti-6Al-4V alloy materials formed by ZcompleX3 electron beam fuse metal additive manufacturing system developed and manufactured by itself. After HIP treatment and double heat treatment of solid solution in two-phase region and low temperature aging, the tension-tension and tension-compression high cycle fatigue limits in X and Z directions of the specimens are higher than the requirements of the technical standard for Ti-6Al-4V bars, and the data consistency is excellent. ZcompleX3 Fuse Electron Beam Metal Printer Test report issued by Shenyang Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences Electron Beam Fuse Additive Manufacturing Electron beam fuse additive manufacturing (EBAM) is a cutting-edge technology in the field of 3D printing with electron beam as the heat source. Only a few companies in the world,titanium bar gr5, such as Sciaky in the United States and Xi'an Zhirong in China, can provide commercial products. Expand the full text The technical principle is as follows: in a vacuum environment, an electron beam with high energy density bombards a metal surface to form a molten pool, a metal wire is fed into the molten pool through a wire feeding device and is molten, the molten pool moves according to a pre-planned path, and the metal material is solidified and accumulated layer by layer to form compact metallurgical bonding until a metal part or blank is manufactured. Schematic diagram of electron beam fuse additive manufacturing technology Shaanxi Satellite TV's Report on Xi'an Intelligent Fuse Electron Beam Metal 3D Printing System in 2017 The characteristics of this technology are very obvious,titanium filler rod, such as printing in vacuum environment, effectively avoiding the mixing of impurity elements, fast forming speed, high material utilization rate, stainless steel fuse efficiency up to 15 kg/H, suitable for rapid manufacturing of large structural parts, good consistency of forming process, and so on; It can be used for additive manufacturing of functional gradient materials (FGM) and metal matrix composites, as well as processing of refractory metals such as tungsten, molybdenum, 3d titanium wire ,titanium bar gr7, niobium and tantalum. However, the surface accuracy of the parts is not high, and CNC processing is needed in the later stage. Some of the metal parts printed by Xi'an Zhiyu Electron Beam Fuse have been machined by CNC Titanium alloy 3D printing is a powerful tool in the field of aerospace. In aviation manufacturing, foreign titanium alloy electron beam fuse additive manufacturing technology has been successfully applied, such as Lockheed Martin F35 stealth aircraft flaperon wing spar, vertical tail rear spar, Airbus aircraft upper wing, etc. This application not only saves costs, but also greatly improves the delivery time. The corresponding application in China is still in a blank state. According to Antarctic Bear, Sciaky used electron beam additive manufacturing (EBAM) technology to print more than 12000 pounds (5443 kilograms) of titanium in 2020. Lockheed Martin produces the F35 stealth aircraft. Titanium is an important structural metal developed in the 1950s. Titanium alloys are widely used in various fields because of their high strength, good corrosion resistance and high heat resistance. For example, the amount of titanium alloys in military aircraft can reach 20% -25% of the weight of aircraft structure, and in aero-engines, the amount is generally 20% -30% of the total weight of the structure. The first practical titanium alloy is Ti-6Al-4V, which was successfully developed in the United States in 1954. It is the trump card alloy in the titanium alloy industry, and many other titanium alloys can be regarded as its modification. The use of this alloy has accounted for 75% ~ 85% of all titanium alloys.
The traditional processing method of titanium alloy is difficult to process, the processing cycle is long, the material utilization rate is low, and some large structures have complex shapes or special specifications, which are difficult to achieve by forging. According to statistics, the material utilization rate of large aviation titanium alloy parts in China is very low, not more than 10% on average, and a large number of tooling dies are needed for die forging and casting, which leads to the increase of research and development costs. By using metal additive manufacturing technology to produce titanium alloy parts, the integration of structure can be realized, the cost and cycle can be reduced, the purpose of rapid response and mold-free integrated manufacturing can be achieved, more than two-thirds of materials can be saved, more than half of numerical control processing time can be reduced, no mold is needed, and the development cost, especially the first and small batch development cost, can be greatly reduced. About Xi'an Zhirong Xi'an Zhirong Metal Printing System Co., Ltd. is one of the few metal 3D printing technology companies focusing on the electron beam heat source technology route in China. Its self-developed fuse-based electron beam metal additive manufacturing system is suitable for high-speed and low-cost manufacturing of large metal structural parts. In the field of fuse electron beam metal printing technology and powder bed electron beam metal printing technology,titanium exhaust tubing, it has the core technology of independent intellectual property rights. It designs and produces the Zcomplex ® series of fusible electron beam metal printing systems based on its leading EBVF3 ® technology platform and the ZScan ® series of powder bed electron beam metal printing systems based on its exclusive SmartBeam ® technology platform. In order to expand the application of aviation titanium alloy structural parts with high material performance requirements, especially those bearing fatigue loads, Xi'an Zhiyu Technology Team has carried out a large number of research on titanium alloy electron beam fuse additive manufacturing technology since 2017 and made a breakthrough by the end of 2020. Return to Sohu to see more Responsible Editor:. yunchtitanium.com