News

Annual consumption of 5.4 tons of titanium alloy, successfully used as a metal 3D printing solution for land, sea, air, and space

On February 8, 2021, Sciaky, the world's leading metal additive manufacturing supplier, announced that the total amount of titanium alloy deposited using electron beam additive manufacturing technology in 2020 reached 5443 kilograms, exceeding previous years' data. Even during the pandemic, the high-end manufacturing industry in the United States does not seem to have been severely affected, and both car manufacturing and rocket testing and launches are proceeding as usual.
Sciaky's electron beam additive manufacturing metal 3D printing solution is a wire based oriented energy deposition process (EBAM). The vast majority of titanium alloy deposition manufacturing in West Asia is related to the production of parts, which are mostly used for certified aerospace and defense applications, as well as various titanium alloy prototypes for research and development. This type of project will not disclose details to the public due to the confidentiality agreement signed.
Electron beam additive manufacturing reduces the time and cost associated with traditional manufacturing (i.e. forging and casting). The EBAM 300 printer from West Asia once produced a 3-meter-long titanium aircraft structure at a speed of approximately 6.8 kilograms per hour within 48 hours; Usually, this process can be used to complete forgings that previously took 6-12 months to complete within 2 days. Compared to other metal additive manufacturing processes, EBAM can deposit 3.18-11.34 kilograms of material per hour based on different material and part characteristics, with a rate nearly ten times higher. Simply put, EBAM technology provides true scalability for part size and quality, and is the most cost-effective industrial metal 3D printing process within a certain range of applications.
Xiaky's electron beam deposition process can print materials such as titanium, tantalum, tungsten, copper, aluminum, stainless steel, and high-temperature alloys. In many cases, metal welding wire raw materials are 50% or even cheaper than powder raw materials, and are safer and easier to store. It can print parts or structures measuring 5.79 x 1.22 x 1.22 m, or manufacture circular parts with a diameter of 2.44 m. The patented IRISS closed-loop control technology provides extremely high control over the geometric shape and material composition of parts, enabling automation and adaptive real-time process control, automatic process variable acquisition and recording, thereby ensuring consistent organization and mechanical properties of parts.
In the field of 3D printing technology, a company can consume 5.4 tons of titanium alloy material in one year, but this cannot be solely attributed to the high throughput of the equipment, more importantly, the number of orders it has. According to Siaki, it currently owns five large format 3D printers and has large orders from aerospace and defense clients. Due to the signing of a confidentiality agreement, we are unable to obtain detailed project information, but through our previous cooperation with clients.
In 2014, West Asia joined Lockheed? Martin Corporation has manufactured key hemispherical tank components for space systems; In 2016, Siaki delivered a large industrial grade metal 3D printer to Airbus. Prior to this, the company had already manufactured the internal structure of aircraft wings for Airbus; In 2017, Siaki announced that it would produce metal 3D printed components for the International Submarine Engineering (ISE) AUV submarine; In 2020, Siaki announced the acquisition of 12 new aerospace projects, involving advanced research and development, prototype manufacturing, and final component production and manufacturing. At present, West Asia's EBAM technology is an approved industrial metal 3D printing solution for land, sea, air, and space applications.
In other fields, the company has also validated for intensive military applications, such as 3D printed bodies, landing gear, and missile and vehicle parts. But overall, aerospace and defense are the most important application areas for large-scale metal 3D printing technology.
The demand for titanium alloy 3D printing is growing strongly
The static performance of additive manufacturing titanium alloy specimens is close to or even exceeds the forging standard, with a tensile strength of up to 1200Mpa. Compared with traditional cutting processing, 3D printing also shows the characteristics of easy processing and less waste in titanium alloy forming, while meeting the needs of small batch, personalized, and rapid design response; In addition, 3D printing provides new ideas for lightweight, configuration design, and integrated rapid design and manufacturing of titanium alloy materials.
Based on excellent comprehensive performance and high technological maturity, additive manufacturing of titanium alloys (such as TC4, TC11, TiAl, etc.) has been widely used in typical complex structural components of various types of aircraft and aviation engine parts at home and abroad, and has shown obvious advantages such as low cost and high efficiency.
Titanium alloys have always held a leading position in the metal 3D printing materials market, accounting for 65.3% of global revenue in 2019 according to the Market Analysis Report, which depends not only on usage but also on price. The aerospace industry's adoption of 3D printing to manufacture titanium alloy prototypes has become a major factor driving growth, and its ability to meet industry requirements in terms of weight, strength, and corrosiveness enables it to maintain sustainable growth.
From 2017 to 2020, the usage of metal 3D printing materials has steadily increased, with nickel, steel, and titanium leading the market (source Wohlers Report 2020). Among all material forms, powder materials occupy the main market share, with a value of 92.6% in 2019. Thanks to the strength of the application market, the price of titanium alloy powder has rapidly declined in recent years. Whether domestically produced or imported, the price is basically between 1300-1800 yuan/kg, and there is still a trend and room for further decline. Thanks to this, the application field of titanium alloy 3D printing is gradually expanding beyond the scope of aerospace, and is beginning to expand into the automotive and large-scale industrial fields. The domestic titanium alloy 3D printing powder market is thriving.
However, compared with powder bed technology, some equipment manufacturers have begun to shift their attention to metal wire additive manufacturing technology based on arc or electron beam, which has lower manufacturing costs and can break through the limitations of forming size. The Market Analysis Report predicts that the compound annual growth rate of the metal wire additive manufacturing market will reach 25.8% from 2020 to 2027. In the coming years, this technology will show a significant growth trend.

[ 上一页 ] Strengthening coll...[ 下一页 ] Revealing how lase...