Process optimization of the Ti6Al4V EBM process through the use of Point Melting

Important results from the project

AIM Sweden is a Subcon manufacturer focused on additive manufacturing with the EBM technology and we have seen potential in using a melting strategy based on points rather than the contour and hatch-based strategy used today. This SME project under CAM2 has been an initial study in the possibilities with and what it takes to melt Ti6Al4V with EBM using point melt strategy. We have been able to show significant improvements to surface finish and reduction of need for support on surfaces where needed the most while acquiring a density on the material at least comparable to the standard process.

Expected long term effects

The project has in accordance with what was expected been able to show that it is possible to produce better surfaces through point melting. This is especially true for surfaces at an angle of 0-20 degrees from the horizontal plane, both positive and negative surfaces. It has also shown that it is possible to reduce the angle where support is needed and how tightly spaced this support needs to be. Further the project has shown a reduction of layer effects and thus a reduced deviation of the form.

Approach and implementation

Traditionally to develop process parameters for additive manufacturing one would first focus on melting cubes and then move on to test bars and then finally move on to the geometries that need to be produced. In this project we deliberately moved fast through the first steps to be able focus more on the different surfaces and geometries of interest since that was the part of the process we would like to optimize. This proved to be successful especially since some time was lost due to lack of recourses because of COVID-19.