Scanning system development and digital beam control method for electron beam selective melting

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to correct the beam deflection errors and beam defocus by using a digital scanning system. Electron beam selective melting (EBSM) is an additive manufacturing technology for metal parts. Beam deflection errors and beam defocus at large deflection angles would greatly influence the accuracy of the built parts. Design/methodology/approach – The 200 × 200 mm2 scanning area of the electron beam is discretized into 1001 × 1001 points arranged in array, based on which a digital scanning system is developed. To correct the deflection errors, the electron beam scans a 41 × 41 testing grid, and the corrective algorithm is based on the bilinear transformation from the grid points’ nominal coordinates to their measured coordinates. The beam defocus is corrected by a dynamic focusing method. A three-dimensional testing part is built with and without using the corrective algorithm, and their accuracies are quantitatively compared. Findings – The testing grid scanning result shows that the accuracy of the corrected beam deflection system is better than ± 0.2 mm and beam defocus at large deflection angles is eliminated visibly. The testing part built with using the corrective algorithm is of greater accuracy than the one built without using it. Originality/value – Benefiting from the digital beam control method, the model-to-part accuracy of the system is effectively improved. The digital scanning system is feasible in rapid manufacturing large and complex three-dimensional metal parts.