On April 27, 2020, the British 3D printing company Wayland Additive demonstrated its new electron beam powder bed melting (PBF) process, known as NeuBeam. The company said its technology has many advantages over other metal PBF processes (laser PBF and electron beam systems).
Wayland is a company spun off from Reliance Precision, a 100-year-old engineering company.
Wayland relies on a series of British innovation funds to develop a new electron beam PBF process based on electron microscope and electron beam lithography related processes. After obtaining the technology license from Reliance, Wayland is currently commercializing the NeuBeam technology, with the goal of providing machines to six customers by 2021.
Wayland CEO Will Richardson said that using the principles developed from the semiconductor industry, NeuBeam can neutralize the charge accumulation in the traditional electron beam PBF (the word "neu" in NeuBeam), thereby expanding the system's printing parameters. As a result, the stability of the electron beam PBF is higher than that of the laser PBF, and it has more flexibility than the laser PBF. In turn, NeuBeam can use a wider range of materials than other PBF processes.
Richardson described NeuBeam as a "hot part process rather than a hot bed process" because it only heats the parts being printed, not the entire print bed. Wayland's technology does not produce "sinter cake" (caused by preheating unprinted powder) like the electron beam PBF process, but after the manufacturing is completed, the powder can flow freely, reducing the amount of post-processing required Energy consumption, and, the company claims, the parts have no residual stress. By eliminating thermal stress and cross-flow of gas, and simplifying powder removal, Wayland believes that they can make larger parts than traditional electron beam technology.
As a newer metal PBF company, Wayland Additive introduced structured light scanning, electronic imaging, and high-speed infrared cameras from the beginning to introduce real-time process monitoring, preempting its predecessors in the industry. This allows the system to be adjusted during the printing process to adjust the microstructure during the part manufacturing process. This also helps in the development of materials, because the parameters can be changed instantly to optimize the performance of the metal.
Although the electron beam PBF process has been around for a while, there are few competitors in this field. The main manufacturer of the electron beam PBF system is Arcam, now a subsidiary of GE Additive, and its electron beam melting (EBM) system has been the standard bearer of the electron beam PBF since its sales in 2001.
However, this technology has been limited for reasons such as those mentioned above. For example, the charge accumulation problem solved by NeuBeam will cause powder scattering and "smoke events". Once it occurs, it will deform the printed layer and damage the entire part.
Currently, Arcam only provides EBM technology for two industries, namely aerospace and medical implants.
Recently, companies like Wayland Additive have begun offering alternative products, such as Xi'an Sialon Metal from China, and JEOL, a Japanese manufacturer of electron beam metrology and inspection technology.
This will undoubtedly make the electron beam PBF market more interesting and may provide further competition for the market-leading laser PBF companies such as EOS. Moreover, since Wayland is said to have developed a method to overcome the shortcomings of EBM, there is no doubt that GE is also trying the same method.