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Ultralight and extremely stable (Das Fraunhofer-Magazin)

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Ultralight and extremely stable

Electron beam melting is not yet widely used as an additive production method. Fraunhofer researchers want to change this and show how the aviation industry can benefit from the process.

Text: Chris Löwer

If it is bad, almost 95 percent of a metal block, from which complex aircraft parts are milled, become a waste disposal case. Still, there are hardly any alternatives to this material waste. However, scientists from the Fraunhofer Institutes for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Material Research IFAM in Dresden and for ILT in Aachen are working on the GenFLY project to optimize metal alloys and processes in order to be able to make such demanding parts additive and economical.


It is important, among other things, to process the materials in such a way that hardly pores are formed, which would be at the expense of strength. It has already succeeded in producing a demonstrator component for a helicopter made of titanium powder. The "MG Bracket rear", a safety-relevant, highly loaded and geometrically extremely complex gear unit, was produced with selective electron beam melting (EBM). Thanks to the generative production process, metals can be processed very easily, which can only be melted at high temperatures so as to build up their powder layer for layer parts. The process does not only conserve resources, it also offers additional advantages: "Thanks to improved geometry, we were able to reduce the weight by 40 percent," explains Dr. Alexander Kirchner, project manager at the IFAM. Compared to the usual method of selective laser beam melting (SLM), electron beam melting is characterized by its high energy density and speed, resulting in higher building materials. Kirchner adds, "Furthermore, the process is carried out at high temperatures so that the components are virtually free of stresses." Moreover, the process runs in vacuo, which offers advantages for highly reactive materials such as titanium.

Quality requirements exceeded

In the project GenFLY, in which the industrial partners Airbus and Liebherr are involved, the processes were optimized and the material properties of the titanium-aluminum powder »Ti-6Al-4V« were characterized. "Our component exceeded the requirements of the aerospace industry in terms of static and dynamic strength," says Kirchner. At the same time, it is still necessary to take hurdles to make the process industrially suitable: the production time is still quite long with 30 hours at the demonstrator component and electron beam melting is still too expensive for most of the standard components. "However, the profitability of the process will increase in the long term," says Kirchner. "Many important cost factors such as powder pricing, plant productivity and automation are currently on the move." Not to mention the excellent resource efficiency. Although very few materials are currently available for EBM, the researchers are working to expand this range, including nickel materials and steels.

Experts are convinced that the currently still not widely used EBM process will find its place in additive manufacturing, as its strengths lie in high building applications and hard-to-use materials can be used. Due to its long experience in powder technology, the Dresden Fraunhofer Institute would like to become a driver of the process in industrial production. To this end, a user center for electron beam melting will be set up in Dresden in the coming years. At the same time, Kirchner and his team can be sure of a great deal of attention: "The aerospace industry is very interested in geometrically highly optimized, lightweight and lightweight components, despite its stringent quality requirements." But also automotive manufacturers, machine builders, sports equipment manufacturers and medical technicians can be more complex in the future Parts of the process.