Retech Systems LLC, a SECO/WARWICK company, supplied electron-beam (EB) melting and vacuum-arc remelting (VAR) equipment to Perryman Co., a global supplier of titanium to the aerospace and medical industries. Perryman commissioned the titanium melting equipment at its facility in California, Pa.
According to Perryman, it was able to move from start-up to production immediately after installation was complete. The equipment will double its titanium melting capacity.

GE Additive entered into a five-year cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The agreement focuses on processes, materials and software to drive industrialization and encourage the broader adoption of additive-manufacturing (AM) technology. The agreement supersedes an existing CRADA in place since 2012 between ORNL and GE Additive Arcam EBM. ORNL purchased its first Arcam EBM system in 2009. Since that time, ORNL and the Arcam EBM teams have worked together to create opportunities for companies in multiple U.S. manufacturing sectors to adopt electron-beam melting (EBM) technology. 

GE Additive announced that GE Aviation made a significant investment in its electron-beam-melting (EBM) technology with the purchase of an additional 27 systems. Avio Aero, a GE Aviation company, currently operates a fleet of 35 Arcam machines at its recently expanded site in Cameri, Italy. The additional EBM systems will be installed at GE Aviation and Avio Aero facilities in the U.S. and Europe. They will be used primarily for the production of titanium aluminide (TiAl) blades on the low-pressure turbine for the GE9X engine.

HRE Wheels and GE Additive unveiled the first titanium wheel created using electron-beam melting (EBM) technology, a type of 3D printing. With a traditional aluminum Monoblok wheel, 80% of material is removed from a 100-pound forged block of aluminum to create the final product. With additive manufacturing, only 5% of the material is removed and recycled, making the process far more efficient. Titanium also has a much higher specific strength than aluminum and is corrosion resistant, allowing it to be extremely lightweight. Known as HRE3D+, this new prototype wheel shows how advanced materials like titanium can be harnessed to create complex designs. The wheel was produced on two Arcam EBM machines in five separate sections then combined using a custom center section and titanium fasteners.

Additive-manufacturing (AM) technologies have drawn a lot of attention and investment from the manufacturing community in recent years. This article presents an overview of AM processes, including their economic and operational advantages and constraints.

Find out how Arcam’s electron-beam melting (EBM) technology differs from conventional laser beam technology.