Actual state-of-the-art of electron beam powder bed fusion

Abstract

As a relatively young additive manufacturing technology, Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (EB-PBF) attracts increasing attention in academics and industry. Especially, the last five years have seen an explosion in machine and process development as well as material research for EB-PBF. Compared to other additive manufacturing approaches, e.g., the more widely used laser powder bed fusion, EB-PBF shows various unique features and advantages for processing high-performance metallic components. In this article, recent advancements in the realm of EB-PBF over the past five years are reviewed.

Keywords

• additive manufacturing
• electron beam powder bed fusion
• process observation
• quality assurance
• high-performance alloys