The Paton Welding Journal, 2024, №07



2024 №07 (07)

DOI of Article 10.37434/tpwj2024.07.01

2024 №07 (02)

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The Paton Welding Journal, 2024, #7, 3-9 pages

Manufacturing a consolidated copper-stainless steel bimetallic product using xBeam 3D metal printing

D. Kovalchuk¹, L. Tretiakov¹, P.R. Carriere², Nanda Gopal Matavalam²

¹JSC NVO Chervona Hvilya, 28 Dubrovytska str., 04200, Kyiv, Ukraine. E-mail: dmytro@xbeam3d.com
²RadiaBeam Technologies, LLC, 1717 Stewart Str., Santa Monica, CA 90404, USA

Abstract
The creation of strong and tight copper and stainless steel joints in mechanical structures and components is an actual challenge in modern engineering. Thanks to unique combination of different properties such joints have many important applications like components of linear particle accelerators, ultra-high vacuum systems (up to 10–8 torr), heat exchangers, even of the international fusion experimental reactor. At the same time, ensuring a reliable joint of immiscible materials such as copper and stainless steel is a technologically challenging problem due to significantly different physical, mechanical and metallurgical properties, including melting points, thermal expansion coefficients, thermal conductivity, etc. Traditional approaches to the production of such joints, based on certain welding methods, impose many technical and geometric limitations due to the need for special preparation of the contact surfaces of the parts to be joined or the uncontrolled formation of new phases when mixing melts of different metals. As for brazing methods, they do not always provide reliable vacuum-tight joints for relatively thick parts and do not guarantee sufficient joint strength. Therefore, it is important to find more technologically flexible ways to solve such problems. This article discusses a new approach to joining copper and stainless steel using the xBeam 3D Metal Printing technology. This novel directed energy deposition (DED) technology uses a profile electron beam and coaxial feeding of copper wire to deposit it upon a precision machined stainless steel substrate. The results of the exploration study of joints made using this method are presented, including the study of vacuum tightness of the joint, density of the deposited material, metallurgy of the interface, electrical conductivity, oxygen content, hardness in different zones, etc. Specialized preheating strategies minimized the thermal deformation of the machined substrate, a key consideration for adding multimaterial functionality to monolith components.
Keywords: copper, stainless steel, joining, bimetals, additive manufacturing, metal 3D printing, electron beam, DED-wire

Received: 31.01.2024
Received in revised form: 12.04.2024
Accepted: 29.07.2024

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Suggested Citation

D. Kovalchuk, L. Tretiakov, P.R. Carriere, Nanda Gopal Matavalam (2024) Manufacturing a consolidated copper-stainless steel bimetallic product using xBeam 3D metal printing. The Paton Welding J., 07, 3-9.

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