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Inside Wayland Additive: How innovation in electron beam PBF is opening new markets for AM UK-based Wayland Additive is convinced that, when it comes to metal Additive Manufacturing, Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-EB) has a bright future ahead. Whilst laser-based PBF is the most widely commercialised AM technology, it has inherent limitations that electron beam-based innovations such as Wayland’s NeuBeam process promise to overcome. Rachel Park reports on how the technology could open up the AM market by enabling users of the Calibur3 machine to rapidly develop and commercialise a wider range of industrial materials. Metal AM magazine has, periodically, considered where Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF- EB) processes fit within the metal Additive Manufacturing industry. Specifically, two articles by Joseph Kowen deftly sketched out the landscape in this regard in 2020 and 2022 [1,2]. In the latter article, Kowen concluded, “Progress in PBF-EB is measured but real, though there is much left to be done. The technology and its industrialisation are on track, but the game is long.” Now, in 2024, Kowen’s conclusion continues to ring true, even as further progress has materialised both from the leader in the field, GE Additive, and a host of commercial newcomers in the field highlighted in the 2022 article, one of these being Wayland Additive. Recently, Metal AM magazine’s Managing Editor, Nick Williams, and freelance writer Rachel Park visited the company to speak with key personnel about its electron beam metal AM process, NeuBeam, and tour the facility that produces the commercially available Calibur3 machines.
Vol. 10 No. 1 © 2024 Inovar Communications Ltd
To understand the company's intent, it is important to get a handle on the unique aspects of its process. For this, Ian Laidler, Chief Technology Officer at Wayland Additive, and the lead scientist who proved the concept of NeuBeam for an Innovate UK-funded project in 2016, is best placed to explain.
“Electron beams have been used for decades in precision welding, in scanning electron microscopy and the semiconductor industry,” he stated. “The latter is actually my background. When we first looked at how electron beams were deployed for AM, at the time there was only one option, and the lack of stability struck us,
Fig. 1 Wayland Additive's headquarters in Huddersfield, is located between the industrial cities of Manchester and Sheffield, in the north of England (Courtesy Wayland Additive)
Metal Additive Manufacturing | Spring 2024
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