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Electron beam technology
the advanced tool in production Uwe Clauß
pro-beam, Neukirchen / Germany
7th International EWI/TWI Seminar on
Joining Aerospace Materials Boing Longacres Customer Center, September 2014
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Why us the electron beam as joining tool?
• Minimum heat input
• Narrow and parallel welding seams
∙ minimum shrinkage and warpage
• High flexibility
∙ large range of weldable materials
∙ dissimilar materials
∙ large range of weld penetration
0.1mm to 150mm)
• High reproducibility
• Minimum post weld treatment
• Process automation
• In situ Quality control
bronze/steel, 30mm
stainless steel, 2mm up to 150mm
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Initial design: solid construction
Material: case hardened steel
Goal: hollow structure, joining of gear,
shaft and syncron ring in one step
Example: Potential of Electron Beam Welding
Potential:
• 50% weight reduction
• Reduced number of
processes
• Improved performance
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Evolution of EB Equipment
Electron beam machine build in
the 50‘s - easy to operate
CNC controlled 5 axis EB welder
150kV, 30kW – unmanned EB welding
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lens
deflector
sensor-
plate
e-b
eam
backscattered electrons
state of the art
pro-beam observation
Monitoring with Backscattered Electrons
Resolution:
7µm
signal contrast:
1:15000
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Manual Correction of The Beam Position
Tracking the seam
by moving the x,y table
Observation with
vectorised monitoring
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lens
deflector
sensor-
plate
e-b
eam
backscattered electrons
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Electronenoptical
observation during welding
Process Monitoring - ELO-Online
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Wireless detector for
beam alignment to be
placed close to the work
piece
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Automatic Beam Alignment
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The z-axis is squeezed by a factor of 20
high
low
intensity
focusing centring stigmatising
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Automatic Beam Alignment
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screen shot of the automatic beam
alignment routine
Disc of error distribution for beam alignment:
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beam alignment parameter [x]
beam
alig
nm
ent
para
mete
r [y
]
+ ideal beam alignment parameter
+
average operator
experienced operator
automatic beam
alignment routine
syste
m p
ate
nte
d b
y p
ro-b
eam
Automatic Beam Alignment
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Beam Quality
Measurement of the
beam profile in 3 cross
sections
Beam measurement
according to
DIN EN ISO 11146-1
BPP
beam waist
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Scanning like Welding
Automatic EB welding of a free contour
I /jfa/01
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Scanning like Welding
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Automatic EB welding of a free contour
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Scanning as welding at any number contours
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Scanning like Welding
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Scanning as welding at any number contours
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Scanning like Welding
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Multi pool welding
Tack welded assembly of particle filters – up to 60 simultaneous welds are
achieved.
Multi-Beam Electron Beam Welding
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Multi-Beam - Advanced Beam Control
Multi Process Electron Beam Control
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pre heat
main weld pool
Additional
heating fields
post heat field weld crown
FEM-Simulation: 3 weld pools (source: WIAS, Berlin)
Multi-Process Applications
Multi-Beam - Advanced Beam Control
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Post weld Seam Inspection
The system can be programmed for detection of specific fault patterns. Due to the
high contrast of the ELO monitoring it’s easy to find a threshold for a secure and
reproducible detection of the defects
Scan of entire weld crown with indication of weld defect
Zoomed section of the weld defect
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Sub-Surface Weld Inspection
Scan of entire weld crown with indication of weld defect. X-ray (top) compared to ELO image (bottom).
zoomed image of the region of interest
Due to the high contrast of the x-ray image a secure and reproducible detection of
the defects is possible.
X-ray
ELO
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Sub-Surface Weld Inspection
Observation by ELO
syste
m p
ate
nte
d b
y p
ro-b
eam
Observation by x-rays
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The electron beam today can
observe, make a diagnose of it self
and give a big capability for
new applications.
Summary
