A Novel Process-Structure-Property Evaluation Package for Large Scale Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing

The U.S. Navy is interested in developing optimized wire-fed directed energy deposition (DED) electron beam additive manufacturing (EBAM) process for large-size, geometrically complex, high-criticality components for ALRE. In EBAM, its wire-based mode has natural advantage to produce dense structures, while the high vacuum forming environment can prevent the oxidation during additive manufacturing (AM) process. The EBAM process is also suitable for the fabrication of large-sized parts that cannot be fabricated by powder methods. The quality of the feed wire and machine parameters have direct effect on the finished product. Currently the research in EBAM in fabrication of alloys is still at the initial stage and lack of systematic understanding. To address this critical need, X-wave Innovations, Inc. (XII) teams up with Sciaky Inc., and Edison Welding Institute (EWI), proposes to develop a novel Process-Structure-Property Evaluation (PSPE) package for enabling the evaluation of fabrication parameters and prediction of component properties for large scale EBAM components. The PSPE approach is built upon Sciaky and EWI’s advanced EBAM fabrication know-how, which includes machine parameter adjustment techniques for high-complexity structures. Additionally, XII contributes its advanced machine learning-based process-structure-property (PSP) model for metal AM parts. In the Phase I program, we successfully prototyped the PSPE package and demonstrated the feasibility of our proposed technology. In Phase II, we will complete PSPE prototype development by modifying and fine-tuning the prototype models and algorithms, and utilizing this technology for correlate the EBAM process parameters to mechanical properties, and provide a digital twin model for EBAM process. At the end of Phase II program, the PSPE package is expected to be ready for transitioning into production applications.