The Complete Guide to Electron Beam Melting (EBM) in 3D Printing

Electron Beam Melting (EBM) is part of the powder bed fusion family. Unlike Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), it uses, as its name suggests, an electron beam to fuse metal particles and create, layer by layer, the desired part. Marketed by the Swedish company Arcam in 2002, this process enables the creation of complex and highly resistant structures. Note that Arcam was acquired by GE Additive in 2016 and is the only one to market machines based on this process as of today.

The main difference with LPBF technology is therefore the heat source used. Here, EBM technology uses an electron beam produced by an electron gun. The latter extracts the electrons from a tungsten filament under vacuum and projects them in an accelerated way on the layer of metallic powder deposited on the building plate of the 3D printer. These electrons will then be able to selectively fuse the powder and thus produce the part.

The EBM technology uses an electron beam | Credits: Arcam

The Electron Beam Melting process

Everything starts with the 3D modeling of the part you wish to create. You can model it using CAD software, obtain it by 3D scanning or download a model of your choice. The 3D model is then sent to a slicing software, also called slicer, which will cut it according to the successive physical layers of deposited material. The slicer will then send all this information directly to the 3D printer, which can then start its manufacturing process. The metal powder can be loaded into the tank within the machine. It will be deposited in thin layers that will be preheated before being fused by the electron beam. In particular, this step provides more support to the cantilever areas of the part being 3D printed. The machine then repeats these steps as many times as necessary to obtain the entire part.