Sciaky to deliver industrial-scale metal 3D printer to Airbus

Dec. 16, 2016 – Sciaky, a subsidiary of Phillips Service Industries (PSI) and provider of metal additive manufacturing solutions, has announced Airbus will take delivery of an Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM) 110 3D printing system this month to produce large structural parts made of titanium.

Sciaky’s EBAM process combines computer-aided design (CAD), additive manufacturing processing principles, and an electron beam heat source. Starting with a 3D model from a CAD program, Sciaky’s moving electron beam gun deposits metal via wire feedstock, layer by layer, until the part reaches near-net shape. From there, the near-net shape part requires heat treatment and post-production machining, resulting in “minimal material waste.”

EBAM utilizes wire feedstock, which can accommodate a variety of metals and refractory alloys, such as titanium, tantalum, niobium, tungsten, Inconel, and stainless steels. Sciaky’s EBAM 110 System has a work envelope of 1778 mm x 1194 mm x 1600 mm. According to Sciaky, EBAM is the fastest deposition process in the metal additive manufacturing market, with gross deposition rates ranging from 3.18 to 9.07 kg of metal per hour. It also features the Interlayer Real-time Imaging and Sensing System (IRISS), which claims to be the only real-time monitoring and control system in the metal 3D printing market that can sense and digitally self-adjust metal deposition with precision and repeatability.  
 
“Sciaky is very proud to partner with a world-class innovator like Airbus,” said Bob Phillips, vice president of marketing for Sciaky. “We all know that metal 3D printing technology is going to revolutionize manufacturing in the aerospace industry, and Sciaky is committed to being at the forefront of this movement.”

This collage highlights two different stages of an Airbus rear upper spar that was 3D printed in titanium with Sciaky’s EBAM process. The image on the left shows the part in an early preform stage; the image on the right shows the finished part.