ELECTRON BEAM WELDING PROCESS
Electron Beam Welding (Electron Beam Welding) is a fusion welding process carried out through the kinetic energy of a high-speed electron beam, which is converted into heat by the impact on the materials to be welded.
Welding is done under vacuum conditions to avoid scattering of the electron beam. The heating is very localized to allow the rest of the assembly to remain sufficiently stable. The weld has a minimal thermally altered zone, which is very narrow and deep (up to 60mm in a single pass), with formation of the keyhole.
Advantages
- Extremely low or no contaminant content in the weld as it is performed in high vacuum;
- High depth-to-width ratio that allows welding in a single pass compared to arc welding that requires multiple passes;
- High versatility of the electron beam control system;
- High electron beam energy density in the impact area (100 to 1000 times higher than arc welding processes);
- Low heat input and reduced thermal effects on the adjacent base material.
Application fields
Electron beam welding is used only in large industries given also the high cost of the equipment. The industries in which it finds most application are the energy sector, welding of combustion chamber components, automotive sector, gears and transmission parts production, aerospace sector, engine components, structures and transmission parts
Curiosity
EBW was firstly developed in 1958 by the German physicist Karl-Heinz Steigerwald.