ELECTRON BEAM WELDING

Electron beam welding gives engineers the freedom to simplify designs and reduce manufacturing costs by allowing complex finished components to be fabricated from separate parts that are then welded together. The alternative is often to produce intricate one-piece components that inevitably incur high production costs.

Manufacturing costs may be further reduced through the elimination of production steps and waste materials. Traditional post welding operations such as machining, straightening, cleaning, polishing and heat treatment can often be avoided. This commonly makes electron beam welding the final step prior to assembly.

Electron beam welding can offer:

• Low distortion of components
• No oxidation of the surface
• Minimal weld bead
• Accuracy and repeatability
• The joining of difficult to weld metals and alloys
• The joining of dissimilar metal combinations
• Consistent high quality welds

Electron beam welders use a focused beam of electrons to give a spot of high energy density. This produces a deeply penetrating weld with an aspect ratio of up to 50:1 depth/width ratio. Thus, for a given penetration, a minimum amount of metal is melted. Heat input is also minimal resulting in the least possible distortion - often none at all when suitable jigging
is used.

CVE’s metallurgical lab is used for inspection of weld cross sections and for hardness testing of heat-treated materials.