Using Powder Cored Tubular Wire Technology to Enhance Electron Beam Freeform Fabricated Structures

Abstract

Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF 3 ) is an additive manufacturing technique, developed at NASA Langley Research Center, capable of fabricating large scale aerospace parts. Advantages of using EBF 3 as opposed to conventional manufacturing methods include, decreased design-toproduct time, decreased wasted material, and the ability to adapt controls to produce geometrically complex parts with properties comparable to wrought products. However, to fully exploit the potential of the EBF 3 process development of materials tailored for the process is required. Powder cored tubular wire (PCTW) technology was used to modify Ti-6Al-4V and Al 6061 feedstock to enhance alloy content, refine grain size, and create a metal matrix composite in the as-solidified structures, respectively.

Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing with Wire

“…al. [4] indicated that the use of flux cored wires containing aluminum, iron and boron allows manufacturing Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloys with a more stable and finer microstructure. The rapid prototyping process using a beam allows to produce a Ti-6Al-4V titanium airframe element at lower cost compared to older solution.…”