Powder bed fusion of pure copper using an electron beam – achieving high conductivity by real-time process monitoring and control

¹ Chair of Hybrid Additive Manufacturing, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
² Chair for New Production Technologies and Materials, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany

^* Corresponding author: robert.ortmann@rub.de

Abstract

Powder bed fusion of metals using an electron beam (PBF-EB/M) has reached market maturity. While most parts manufactured with PBF-EB/M are titanium-based, the rising interest in highly conductive pure copper is attracting attention from both industry and research across all additive manufacturing methods. Due to its scalable beam power and processing in a high-temperature vacuum atmosphere, PBF-EB/M is considered one of the most promising additive manufacturing technologies. This study presents a real-time process monitoring and control approach to manufacture pure copper from a feedstock with 99.95 % purity via PBF-EB/M. Manufactured samples achieve high electrical conductivities of over 102 % IACS (International Annealed Copper Standard).