Electron beam surface treatment – results, industrial applications and prospects

Zenker Rolf - Zenker Consult (Germany)

Zenker Rolf 1,2) ,  Anja Buchwalder 2) -  1) Zenker Consult, 2) TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Institute of Materials Engineering, Germany

Electron beam is utilized for the surface treatment of a range of different materials (steels, cast irons, and Al, Mg, Ti, Ni, alloys). This thermal high-energy beam technology is used for hardening, remelting, alloying, dispersing, and cladding. A further innovative field is the combination of these treatments with other surface technologies (e.g. nitriding or hard coating).

Rapid progress in these technical areas continually opens up new fields of industrial application. To date, however, the potential of such surface treatment technologies has not been exhausted.

This paper deals with the characteristics of high-energy beam surface technologies. With the focus on electron beam technologies, current scientific results as well as industrial applications will be discussed. The technical and technological prospects and limitations will also be demonstrated.

 

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