High pressure electron gun for electron beam welding and additive manufacturing

Advanced manufacturing is essential for the Department of Energy’s initiatives to improve nuclear energy’s cost, safety, and efficiency. Research and eventual deployment of small modular reactors, sodium cooled reactors, and molten salt integral safe reactors requires high quality welding of high temperature metal alloys, such as Inconel 718, and new methods for metal additive manufacturing of high temperature metals and metal alloys. Such technologies already exist: electron beam welding and electron beam metal additive manufacturing. The electron beam melting process enables the fabrication of high temperature, high strength metals, such as nickel based alloys and niobium. However, such e-beam processing is expensive and of limited accessibility.U.S. Electron is developing an electron beam system that mitigates the current limitations of electron beam welding and additive metal manufacturing. U.S. Electron is commercializing a novel electron beam gun (“e-gun”) for electron beam processing, including welding and additive manufacturing. The distinguishing feature of the U.S. Electron’s e-gun is that it operates in a “soft vacuum” of ~1 to 2 torr, many times higher pressure than conventional e-beam systems. This allows the electron beam to operate inside of a simple “snorkel” that moves over a weld or assembly area, and eliminates the need to enclose the entire part inside of an expensive vacuum housing. The Company’s e-gun and snorkel also provide a solution for precise, large area metal additive manufacturing. In Phase I, U.S. Electron will retrofit a novel component, a DBD cathode, into a standard electron gun typically used for e-beam welding and 3D metal printing. This effort requires specialized mechanical designs and custom high voltage power systems engineering. The Company will demonstrate that its new DBD e-gun can operate in soft vacuum (~1 to 2 torr) and weld metal samples. During Phase I, U.S. Electron will also design the snorkel housing for use in Phase II.Use of U.S. Electron’s e-gun will lower the capital and operating costs of e-beam systems by eliminating the need for large vacuum housings. DBD e-gun systems will be field-deployable; able to be moved amongst multiple manufacturing facilities or installed at construction sites. This will allow manufacturers to build large systems in place using high quality electron beam joining or additive metal manufacturing while simplifying their shipping logistics. The DBD e-gun can be retrofit into existing e-beam systems for welding or 3D printing. U.S. Electron’s system is field deployable, cost reducing, and drastically improves e-beam productivity, especially when joining special alloys such as high temperature nickel alloys used in nuclear reactors.