At MILAM 2025, HAMR Industries, a supplier of superior scientific analysis and engineering options, and Swedish 3D printer producer Freemelt AB showcased their newest developments in tungsten additive manufacturing. Among the many reveals have been steel 3D printed penetrator rounds, produced utilizing the Freemelt One Electron Beam Powder Mattress Fusion (EB-PBF) system at Neighborhood 91, the world’s first end-to-end additive manufacturing (AM) manufacturing campus.
These precision-engineered rounds are designed for high-velocity affect purposes, with the objective of advancing propulsion programs, thermal safety parts, and customised kinetics. They’re particularly engineered to fulfill the high-performance calls for of army, aerospace, and vitality purposes. In keeping with Michael Schmitt, CEO and Senior Analysis Scientist at HAMR Industries, the identical tungsten printing course of will also be utilized to industries resembling rocket nozzles for area exploration, spacecraft thermal safety programs, and fusion energy parts, the place tungsten’s distinctive density and thermal resistance are important for excessive situations.
The rationale for creating these superior rounds is to push the boundaries of current tungsten manufacturing strategies. In comparison with conventional strategies, EB-PBF expertise allows the manufacturing of extremely advanced geometries which might be optimized for enhanced efficiency, materials effectivity, and customization.
Tungsten’s Position in 3D Printing
Tungsten, considered one of Freemelt’s core supplies alongside titanium and copper, is understood for its extraordinarily excessive melting level of three,422°C, making it ultimate for high-temperature purposes. It has additionally develop into more and more interesting as a result of its distinctive skill to keep up energy and stiffness even at elevated temperatures. Nonetheless, Tungsten’s brittleness at decrease temperatures (beneath 300–600°C), together with its excessive melting level and poor machinability, presents challenges in conventional manufacturing strategies.
These difficulties have pushed elevated curiosity in additive manufacturing (AM) for tungsten. Whereas laser beam powder mattress fusion (LB-PBF) has seen restricted success as a result of its decrease course of temperatures (round 200°C), electron beam powder mattress fusion (EB-PBF) supplies a more practical different. By working in a vacuum and sustaining temperatures above 1,000°C, EB-PBF’s inertia-free beam deflection achieves speeds of a number of kilometers per second. This allows environment friendly melting of extremely crack-prone supplies whereas sustaining their chemical purity.
Analysis and Improvements in Tungsten 3D Printing
Recognizing its potential, Freemelt has been advancing its industrial EB-PBF system, eMelt, to optimize tungsten 3D printing. The corporate is exploring numerous strategies, together with spot melting, enabled by its proprietary Pixelmelt® software program. Spot melting permits for better utilization of beam energy, which might enhance manufacturing effectivity.
A key characteristic of Freemelt’s electron beam supply is its diode-type system with a laser-heated cathode, which maintains constant beam spot high quality throughout the 0–6 kW energy vary. Different programs might expertise variation in spot high quality when working above 2 kW. Freemelt’s beam supply configuration additionally allows the EB-PBF course of to keep up excessive energy all through preheating, thermal administration, and melting—a functionality unmatched within the subject.
Freemelt’s Previous Improvements
In 2023, Freemelt launched the eMELT-iD, a mannequin designed to simplify product and software growth whereas making ready parts for large-scale manufacturing. That includes integration with the eMELT-iM, the eMELT-iD allows a easy transition from growth to serial manufacturing. Constructed on the core expertise of the eMELT-iM, it affords a singular method to the event and scaling of business machines. This innovation seeks to scale back each time and prices for purchasers trying to develop new purposes for mass manufacturing utilizing 3D printing applied sciences.
In 2024, Freemelt additionally secured patents for a post-processing methodology to take away extra powder from 3D printed elements. This methodology, designed for ending powder mattress fusion prints, includes filling elements with saline water, freezing them to interrupt hyperlinks between powder grains in inner channels, and easing the elimination of extra powder.
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Featured picture reveals 3D printed penetrator rounds, produced utilizing the Freemelt One Electron Beam Powder Mattress Fusion (EB-PBF) system. Picture through HAMR Industries.