{"id":7568,"date":"2018-10-07T15:30:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T15:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/?p=7568"},"modified":"2021-05-24T06:47:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T06:47:01","slug":"electron-beam-welding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/electron-beam-welding\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Save Time and Cost with Electron Beam Welding."},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>We take a look at the benefits and industries that make electron beam welding a go-to process.<\/h2>\n<p>A fusion welding process, electron beam welding uses a focussed stream of high energy electrons generated by a filament. These are then directed to the joint required to be welded.<\/p>\n<p>A very minimal heat affected zone is formed as the process produces localised heat. This keeps the rest of the area at a stable temperature. <br \/>There is no need to use filler metal as the parent metal of the assembly is melted by the beam of electrons, creating kinetic heat and causing a fusion or bond. This results in a thin weld.<\/p>\n<p>A vacuum environment is required for electron beam welding, as gases can cause disruption to the beam. <br \/>For this reason, as well as the high voltages needed, it is a heavily automated and CNC controlled process.<br \/>Specialist fixtures are required to move the workpiece inside the vacuum chamber. <br \/>The use of this level of automation also provides excellent repeatability throughout a batch of components, even though they are all completed separately.<\/p>\n<p>Weld speeds are typically around 1-2 metre\/minute and result in deep, narrow welds that need less than 5% of the heat input that a comparable TIG weld would require.<\/p>\n<p>The remarkably low distortion seen from Electro Beam welds means precision parts can be machine finished prior to welding, even ground gears. <br \/>It also makes it possible to weld together components that have previously been heat treated, a very economical method for the production of composite gear shafts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contenteditor\">Recent developments in electron beam welding machine technology have achieved a local method of electron beam welding. <br \/>Whereby the beam gun is fixed in a vacuum enclosure on the side of the material to be joined, rather than placing the entire workpiece inside a vacuum chamber.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/user\/image\/EBW1.jpg\" alt=\"electron beam welding\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>The key benefits<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Minimal distortion &#8211; welds finish machined parts<\/li>\n<li>Welds difficult and dissimilar materials<\/li>\n<li>Exceptional Quality and Repeatability<\/li>\n<li>High Weld Speeds<\/li>\n<li>Deep narrow welds of close to parent metal strength<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Producing savings in<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Cost<\/li>\n<li>Weight<\/li>\n<li>Lead time<\/li>\n<li>Size<\/li>\n<li>Inventory<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/user\/image\/EBW2.jpg\" alt=\"electron beam welding product\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Industries that require the high quality results that are produced by electron beam welding include aerospace, electronics, scientific research, nuclear and both industrial and commercial general manufacturing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/xYi2x0o--34\">Take a look at this great process video from TWI<\/a>!<\/p>\n<h3>Benefits of electron beam welding in more detail:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Low heat input for the welded parts;<\/li>\n<li>Minimal distortion;<\/li>\n<li>Narrow melt zone (MZ) and narrow heat affected zone (HAZ);<\/li>\n<li>Deep weld penetration from 0.05 mm to 200 mm (0.002\u201d to 8\u201d) in single pass;<\/li>\n<li>High welding speed;<\/li>\n<li>Welding of all metals even with high thermal conductivity;<\/li>\n<li>Welding of metals with dissimilar melting points;<\/li>\n<li>Vacuum process yields in clean and reproducible environment;<\/li>\n<li>Natural welding process for oxygen greedy materials such as titanium, zirconium and niobium;<\/li>\n<li>Machine process guaranteed for reliability and reproducibility of the operating conditions;<\/li>\n<li>Cost-effective welding process for large production in automatic mode; and<\/li>\n<li>Parts can mostly be used in the as welded condition &#8211; no sub-machining required.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Application &amp; materials:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Aerospace\n<ul>\n<li>Jet engine components<\/li>\n<li>Parts of structures<\/li>\n<li>Transmission parts<\/li>\n<li>Sensors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Power generation<\/li>\n<li>Space\n<ul>\n<li>Titanium tanks<\/li>\n<li>Sensors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Vacuum systems<\/li>\n<li>Medical<\/li>\n<li>Automotive\n<ul>\n<li>Transmission parts<\/li>\n<li>Gears<\/li>\n<li>Parts of turbocharger<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Electrical\/electronic industries\n<ul>\n<li>Parts in copper material<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Nuclear\n<ul>\n<li>Fuel housing<\/li>\n<li>Parts of structure<\/li>\n<li>Valves<\/li>\n<li>Instrumentations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Research centres\n<ul>\n<li>Copper parts<\/li>\n<li>Superconductivity material components<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Miscellaneous<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>All metals even with high thermal conductivity\n<ul>\n<li>Steel and stainless steel<\/li>\n<li>Aluminium and alloys<\/li>\n<li>Copper and alloys<\/li>\n<li>Nickel alloys and refractory metals<\/li>\n<li>Titanium and alloys<\/li>\n<li>Zr, Mo, Ta, Hf, W, Nb, etc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Welding of metals with dissimilar melting points\n<ul>\n<li>Copper to steel<\/li>\n<li>Copper to nickel alloys<\/li>\n<li>Steel to nickel alloys<\/li>\n<li>Tantalum to tungsten<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Electron Beam welders are not something we buy and sell, however we would love to talk to you about your current welding project and recommend a brand or piece of equipment to improve your productivity.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/weldingmachines.aspx\">Click here<\/a> to view our current stock, or if you have welding or cutting equipment you are looking to sell, take a look at our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/wanted.aspx\">Wanted page<\/a> and contact Bev or Peter.<\/p>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We take a look at the benefits and industries that make electron beam welding a go-to process. A fusion welding process, electron beam welding uses a focussed stream of high energy electrons generated by a filament. These are then directed &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/electron-beam-welding\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[383,384],"tags":[39,38,412,11],"class_list":["post-7568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-resources-library","category-welding-cutting-processes-info","tag-ebw","tag-electron-beam","tag-process","tag-welding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Electron-Beam-Weld.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Ygth-1Y4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7568"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9910,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568\/revisions\/9910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}