Provided is an electron beam source for generating an electron beam comprising a cathode, an anode and a grid for regulating an electron beam current. The cathode has a base and a protrusion with sidewalls and a top surface. The base surface and the top surface are essentially flat. The base surface and the top surface are arranged at a predetermined distance from each other. The base is larger than the protrusion. The electron beam source further comprising a control unit adapted for changing an applied voltage to the grid for switching a spot size of the electron beam on a target surface between at least a first a first spot size corresponding to emission from the top surface of the cathode only and to a second spot size corresponding to emission from the top surface and the base surface of the cathode.

One exemplary embodiment of this disclosure relates to a gas turbine engine, including a component having a first portion formed using one of a casting and a forging process, and a second portion formed using an additive manufacturing process.

Method for manufacturing an electrically effective point of contact on the end of an electrical conductor with a plurality of stranded wires composed of aluminum or an aluminum alloy. At the end of the conductor arranged with the vertical course, initially a holder is placed surrounding the conductor so that the front side of the conductor is exposed and the point is accessible from the top. After the point of the conductor is in an axial direction, on the front surface a heat source of a temperature from 2000 C. and higher heats the surface. The material of the individual wires surrounding oxide layer are melted or steamed away until all the wires of the conductor including the same surrounding oxide layer form a one-piece combined aluminum composed contact part. After that the contact part together with the end of the conductor is cooled.

An additive manufacturing apparatus includes: a coater including: at least one trough including a plurality of side-by-side deposition valves.

An additively manufactured component is provided. The additively manufactured component includes an additively manufactured first part defining a first trench, an additively manufactured second part defining a second trench and a fiber optic sensor. The additively manufactured first and second parts are additively manufactured together with the first and second trenches corresponding in position such that the additively manufactured first and second parts form an assembled part with a fiber channel cooperatively defined by the first and second trenches. The fiber optic sensor includes a first sensor part embedded in the fiber channel and a second sensor part operably coupled to the first sensor part and extendible at an exterior of the assembled part.

An apparatus for, and a method of controlling magnetic anisotropy in a magnetic material comprises directing a layer of powdered metal material to a heat conducting substrate. Electromagnetic energy is applied to the powdered material sufficient to melt the powdered material which is subsequently cooled to create a solid layer on the substrate. An external magnetic field is applied to the material during at least the cooling step so as to imprint the solid magnetic material layer with magnetic anisotropy. Various novel magnetic structures can be fabricated using the technique.

A system for making a build using directed energy deposition is provided. The system includes a primary heat source; a processing nozzle movable relative to the build for delivering a metal powder, a carrier gas for the metal powder, and a shield gas to the build; a melt pool sensor for providing information regarding a temperature of a melt pool of the build; a secondary heat source separate from the primary heat source positionable relative to the build for delivering heat to a selected area of the build; a cooling source positionable relative to the build for delivering a cooling fluid to a selected area of the build; and a control system for operating the primary heat source, the secondary heat source and the cooling source to maintain a desired temperature profile for the build. The system preferably includes a temperature sensor for providing a temperature profile of the build. The temperature control system preferably includes a programmable controller configured to control the secondary heat source and the cooling source to conform the temperature of the build to the desired temperature profile. In one embodiment, the programmable controller is pre-programmed with a dynamic thermal model of a thermal history of the build for each time step.

The invention relates to a method for producing, in particular generatively producing, and coding a three-dimensional component. Said method comprises the following steps: providing a starting material, supplying a process gas to the starting material, melting the starting material by means of a heat source, and repeating the aforementioned steps. The method according to the invention is characterized in that, at least at a predetermined time interval during the melting of the starting material, a coding component or a coding gas containing a coding component is added to the process gas such that the use of the coding component in the finished object is detectable, and coding information is logged which describes the coding information and the location thereof in the component.

An additive manufacturing apparatus includes: a build enclosure having an upper platform defining a planar worksurface and an inner side wall extending downwardly from the upper platform, the inner side wall defining a build chamber; an actuator in sealing engagement with the inner side wall and configured to move vertically along the inner side wall; and a build platform releasably secured to the actuator.

An optical manufacturing process sensing and status indication system is taught that is able to utilize optical emissions from a manufacturing process to infer the state of the process. In one case, it is able to use these optical emissions to distinguish thermal phenomena on two timescales and to perform feature extraction and classification so that nominal process conditions may be uniquely distinguished from off-nominal process conditions at a given instant in time or over a sequential series of instants in time occurring over the duration of the manufacturing process. In other case, it is able to utilize these optical emissions to derive corresponding spectra and identify features within those spectra so that nominal process conditions may be uniquely distinguished from off-nominal process conditions at a given instant in time or over a sequential series of instants in time occurring over the duration of the manufacturing process.