Sciaky consumes 5.4 tons of titanium alloy annually and has successfully used metal 3D printing solutions

Sciaky's electron beam additive manufacturing Metal 3D printing solution is a wire based directional energy deposition process (eBAM). The vast majority of titanium alloy deposition manufacturing in siaki is related to the production of parts, which are mostly used in certified aerospace and national defense applications, as well as various titanium alloy prototypes for R & D. The details of such projects will not be released to the outside world due to the signing of confidentiality agreements.

The strength of electron beam wire additive manufacturing
Electron beam additive manufacturing reduces the time and cost associated with traditional manufacturing (i.e. forging and casting). Sciaky's eBAM 300 printer has produced a 3M long titanium aircraft structure at a speed of about 6.8kg/h in 48 hours. Generally, forgings that previously took 6-12 months to complete can be completed within 2 days using this process. Compared with other metal additive manufacturing processes, eBAM can deposit 3.18-11.34 kg of material per hour according to the characteristics of materials and parts, which is nearly ten times higher. In short, eBAM technology provides real scalability for part size and quality, and is the most cost-effective industrial metal 3D printing process in a certain range of applications.

Parts printed by siaki eBAM 3D
Sciaky's electron beam deposition process can print materials such as titanium, tantalum, tungsten, copper, aluminum, stainless steel and superalloys. In many cases, metal welding wire raw materials are 50% or more cheaper than powder raw materials, and are safer and easier to store. It can print parts or structures up to 5.79 x 1.22 x 1.22 m, or make circular parts with a diameter of up to 2.44 M. The patented iris closed-loop control technology provides extremely high control of part geometry and material composition, and can realize automatic and adaptive real-time process control, automatic process variable acquisition and recording, so as to ensure the consistent organization and mechanical properties of parts.

Aerospace and national defense are the most important application fields
In the field of 3D printing technology, a company can consume 5.4 tons of titanium alloy materials in a year, but this must not be only due to the high throughput of the equipment, but more importantly, the number of orders it has. According to Sciaky, it currently has five large format 3D printers and large orders from aerospace and defense customers.

The demand for 3D printing of titanium alloy is growing strongly
The static properties of titanium alloy specimens made of additive materials approach or even exceed the forging standard, and its tensile strength can reach 1200Mpa. Compared with traditional cutting processing, 3D printing also shows the characteristics of easy processing and less waste in titanium alloy forming. At the same time, it can meet the needs of small batch, personalized and rapid design response. In addition, 3D printing also provides a new idea for lightweight, configuration design and integrated rapid design and manufacturing of titanium alloy materials.

Based on excellent comprehensive performance and high technical maturity, additive manufacturing titanium alloys (such as TC4, TC11, TiAl, etc.) have been widely used in typical complex structural parts of multi type aircraft and Aeroengine Parts at home and abroad, and show obvious advantages such as low cost and high efficiency.

Titanium alloy has always been in a leading position in the metal 3D printing material market. According to the market analysis report, it accounted for 65.3% of the global revenue in 2019, which depends not only on the consumption, but also on the price. The aerospace industry's use of 3D printing to manufacture titanium alloy prototypes has become a major factor in promoting growth, and its ability to meet industry requirements in terms of weight, strength and corrosivity enables it to maintain sustainable growth.