pro-beam to showcase two electron beam based AM machines at Formnext 2021
One year after entering the Additive Manufacturing market, the pro-beam Group, headquartered in Gilching, Germany, will be presenting its new machines for the first time at Formnext 2021. The two machines include one based on a Directed Energy Deposition (DED) process it refers to as WEBAM (Wire Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing), and a second utilising Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-EB) AM.
After pro-beam additive GmbH presented its AM processes last year, under the slogan ‘E-Beam Additive goes Industrial’, the company has developed a manufacturing system for each of its electron beam processes. These machines are intended to respond to the industrial requirements for an efficient production of additively manufactured metal components.
“We are proud to launch our AM systems, in which we integrated our technological and plant engineering-specific expertise,” stated Dr Thorsten Löwer, CTO at pro-beam. “With these machines, we are addressing all those players who not only use Additive Manufacturing with the electron beam, but also want to view, understand, seamlessly trace and automatically control the particular process, regardless of whether it’s an industrial company, university or institute.”
The powder-based PB EBM 30S can be used to manufacture small, detailed metal components in a powder bed using the PBF-EB process developed by the company. Thanks to the good resolution and speed of the electron beam, this process enables the fast, high-quality production of metal components. In addition, the German contract manufacturing and plant engineering company is relying on a deposition strategy that enables a controlled and customised heat distribution, allowing, component size and geometry to play a minor role.
Another aspect of the PB EBM 30S is the machine concept in which processes are parallelised – this is said to result in an efficient system with the highest possible chamber utilisation, without significant auxiliary process times. This allows higher productivity for the customer.
At the same time, the PB EBM 30S features an open system for viewing and adjusting all process parameters and construction data. This transparency allows flexibility and enables users to develop their own manufacturing processes that can be reproduced repeatably.
The DED machine PB WEBAM 100 allows large components to be manufactured from various high-performance metals in a material-efficient manner; this process is also suitable for multi-material components. The WEBAM process is said to ensure reproducible quality for a variety of applications, such as repairing worn components by layering new components and structures on existing metal pieces.
The WEBAM system is available in various sizes and with various kinematics. With good deposition rates (kg/h), this machine is said to enable fast provision of near-net-shape workpieces. The wire feeder developed by pro-beam, which is integrated into the control system, enables a precise setting of the wire feed, as well as a simple and flexible integration of the wire feeder data with the process data. Like the PBF-EB system, the wire-based PB WEBAM 100 also operates with an open system that allows access to all parameters and their individual coordination.
Markus Kepka, CMO, concluded, “These pro-beam systems are highly impressive owing to the technological capabilities, as well as to their functional design. Our goal is to provide innovative, high-performance and user-friendly systems for industrial applications.”
