Features
The ideal toolbox for materials R&D
Clean
Outstanding vacuum quality due to low outgassing materials, all-metal seals and clever design preventing moisture-absorbing metallization.
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Protected
Powder and mechanics fully protected against heat, evaporation, electrons and X-rays during e-beam operation.
Powerful
6 kW electron gun for fast processing and very high powder bed temperatures, >1200 °C. Enables hot processing of crack-sensitive materials and refractory metals.
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Robust
Stiff chamber preventing thermal distortion. All-metal vacuum seals near hot regions.
Lean
Tests can be run with very small powder quantities, thanks to a small build tank and lean powder feeding. Work with cups rather than buckets.
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Time-saving
Small vacuum chamber, 70 liters, with high capacity pumps. Pumps down faster and cools quicker.
Easy
Designed for smooth chamber cleaning, with exchangeable panels and easy access. Clean the system and load another material in a couple of hours.
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Adaptable
Several auxiliary ports for cameras and other R&D instruments. Free line-of-sight into the process chamber, from several directions. Full visibility also of the powder recoating system.
Hardware
An in-depth look at Freemelt® ONE
A true research equipment
Freemelt® ONE is versatile and user friendly. The machine is rigidly supported by a frame structure without an outer shell, giving open access to all ports on the vacuum chamber. If needed, the frame is easily modified to support third-party R&D equipment connected to the system. There are two operating sides to separate powder handling from machine operation:
The door side – where the operator loads powder into the vacuum chamber and take out built parts
The viewport side – where the operator is observing and controlling the E-PBF process
Vacuum chamber interior
The interior is divided by a wall into two compartments. The hot E-PBF process takes place in the build tank in the left compartment. In the right compartment is the powder tank and the recoater. Thanks to the dividing wall, the powder tank and the recoater remain clean, cool and well protected from the process environment conditions. A shutter opens in the wall when the recoater spreads powder from the powder tank to the build tank.
Vacuum chamber
The vacuum chamber has thick steel walls and high stiffness to prevent thermal distortion. All-metal seals and differential pumping solutions contribute to an excellent vacuum quality.
Recoater mechanism
The linear motion of the recoater is actuated by a mechanism positioned outside the vacuum chamber ensuring durability since it is not exposed to the process conditions and can easily be accessed and serviced.
Adaptable powder feeding
The design and properties of the recoater blades and the overall design of the recoater can be further modified and optimized by the user. The movement of the recoater and the powder feeding pistons can also be programmed without restrictions.
Electron beam source
The electron beam source is a diode type source with a laser heated cathode. The advantage of this source type is its consistent beam spot quality throughout the entire beam power range 0-6 kW. Freemelt® ONE thus allows you to operate the electron beam at very high beam currents while still maintaining a well-focused beam spot. This is essential to reach high build rates as well as extremely high build temperatures.
Electron beam source
Software
An in-depth look at Freemelt® ONE
Beam control data path
The electron beam in Freemelt® ONE is controlled by complex magnetic fields created by many magnetic coils acting together. This is made possible by our Field Construct software, an innovative and robust approach using computing power instead of complex hardware. The result is faster positioning of the electron beam to the right place at the right time.
Architecture
The Freemelt® ONE software is built bottom-up in layers to ensure stability. A service interacts with specific hardware, abstracting it into an API. A controller implements sequences and functions that use one or several services. A build processor runs the actual build by executing a build file provided by the user, sending commands to controllers and services. A user interface provides information and receives commands for the build processors, controllers and services. An arbiter prioritizes between the different actions while a data share interface records and passes relevant data.
Instrumentation
An advanced trigger and data acquisition system is integrated with the beam control data path. The data acquisition system records high rate sample data from sensors in Freemelt® ONE where the trigger system is used to synchronize sampled data with the melt process.
Packages
Demo