An electron beam melting system for in-situ synchrotron X-ray monitoring

Electron beam melting (EBM) additive manufacturing (AM) has grown rapidly in recent years due to its capability to manufacture high-performance metals and conductive ceramics. Whereas in-situ synchrotron X-ray imaging and diffraction have proven invaluable tools in understanding of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF), the characterization of the EBM process lagged what has been accomplished in laser-based AM. This is principally due to the lack of an open architecture system. Here we report an open architecture EBM system for in-situ synchrotron X-ray monitoring with complementary high-speed visible light imaging and high-speed infrared (IR) imaging. We demonstrate that the developed system enables the characterization of sub-surface transient phenomena. The open architecture system reported here provides a powerful tool for studying the dynamics and mechanisms of EBM AM process. The promising results reported here may ignite more future research activities on using in-situ synchrotron x-ray techniques to study EBM AM processes.