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Powder bed fusion of metals using an electron beam (PBF-EB/M) has reached market maturity. While most parts manufactured with PBF-EB/M are titanium-based, the rising interest in highly conductive pure copper is attracting attention from both industry and research across all additive manufacturing methods. Due to its scalable beam power and processing in a high-temperature vacuum atmosphere, PBF-EB/M is considered one of the most promising additive manufacturing technologies. This study presents a real-time process monitoring and control approach to manufacture pure copper from a feedstock with 99.95 % purity via PBF-EB/M. Manufactured samples achieve high electrical conductivities of over 102 % IACS (International Annealed Copper Standard).

The demand for strong, compact permanent magnets essential for the energy transition drives innovation in magnet manufacturing. Additive manufacturing, particularly Powder Bed Fusion of metals using a laser beam (PBF‐LB/M), offers potential for near‐net‐shaped Nd‐Fe‐B permanent magnets but often falls short compared to conventional methods. A less explored strategy to enhance these magnets is feedstock modification with nanoparticles. It is demonstrated that modifying a Nd‐Fe‐B‐based feedstock with 1 wt.% Ag nanoparticles boost the coercivity of the magnets to a record value of 935 ± 6 kA m−1 without further post‐processing or heat treatments. Suitable volumetric energy densities for the PBF‐LB/M process are determined using finite element simulations predicting melt pool behavior and part density. Microstructural analyses reveal finer grain sizes and more equiaxed nanocrystalline structures due to the modification. Atom probe tomography identifies three phases in the Ag‐modified samples, with Ag forming nanophase regions with rare‐earth elements near the amorphous Zr‐Ti‐B‐rich intergranular phase, potentially decoupling the Nd2Fe14B primary phase. The study shows that superior magnetic properties primarily result from microstructure modification rather than part density. These findings highlight inventive material design approaches via feedstock surface modification to achieve superior magnetic performance in additively manufactured Nd‐Fe‐B magnets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Powder bed fusion of metals using a laser beam (PBF-LB/M acc. to DIN EN ISO/ASTM 52900) has reached market maturity. In addition to developing new materials and enabling new applications, the industry focuses on increasing productivity and reducing costs. In this context, increasing the layer thickness can increase productivity but often leads to a deterioration of surface quality and part density. Using variable layer thicknesses depending on the manufactured geometry is well-known from filament-based material extrusion processes and is called adaptive slicing. This study investigates the manufacturing aspects of adaptive slicing using AlSi10Mg. Laser beam reflectance of the different powder layer thicknesses is quantified using diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy. The process window is identified and analyzed, focusing on the achievable productivity and required energy input. Furthermore, the suitability of layer thicknesses and processing parameters is analyzed by measuring the dimensional accuracy and process stability of overhanging structures. Heat input, heat dissipation, and potential heat-up are investigated and compared to conventional processes using part-scale thermal simulations. In this study, parameters are developed for layer thicknesses of 120 μm with an almost threefold increase in productivity in nonoverhanging structures with a part density above 99.7%. Further, adaptive slicing can increase productivity in PBF-LB/M while decreasing the impact on part quality. Future work will focus on automated algorithms to optimize and automize adaptive slicing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]