Various embodiments of the teachings herein include an apparatus for identifying a smoke event in an electron beam melting installation comprising: a current meter measuring a grounding current; and a processor programmed to identify a smoke event by evaluating the grounding current.

A method and apparatus, for manufacturing a duct for a fluid management system of an aircraft. A filament-fed additive manufacturing apparatus is used to perform the additive manufacturing process. The additive manufacturing apparatus comprises a nozzle, wherein the nozzle receives material in the form of a filament and adds said material to the duct in a location proximate to the nozzle location, and wherein the nozzle moves in a generally helical path relative to the duct.

A machine tool arranged to deliver an energy source through a processing head onto a work-piece, wherein; the machine-tool has a clamping mechanism arranged to temporarily receive the processing-head, or another machining or processing-head, to process a work-piece; the processing-head comprising one or more guiding mechanisms arranged to direct the energy source onto a work-piece and a processing-head docking-manifold arranged to have connected thereto one or more media to be, in use, supplied to the processing-head to facilitate processing of the work-piece; wherein the processing-head docking-manifold allows the one or more media to be supplied to the processing-head when the processing-head is connected to the clamping mechanism; and wherein the machine-tool also comprises at least one mechanism arranged to move a supply docking-manifold into and/or out of connection with the processing-head docking-manifold such that when the two manifolds are connected the or each media is supplied to the processing head.

A welding or cladding apparatus in which one or more energy beam emitters are used to generate a wide beam spot transverse to a welding or cladding path, and one or more wide feeders feed wire to the spot to create a wide welding or cladding puddle.

Provided are an article and a method of forming an article. The method includes providing a metallic powder, heating the metallic powder to a temperature sufficient to joint at least a portion of the metallic powder to form an initial layer, sequentially forming additional layers in a build direction by providing a distributed layer of the metallic powder over the initial layer and heating the distributed layer of the metallic powder, repeating the steps of sequentially forming the additional layers in the build direction to form a portion of the article having a hollow space formed in the build direction, and forming an overhang feature extending into the hollow space. The article includes an article formed by the method described herein.

A thin-skin support member is provided. The thin-skin support member may include a semi-circular edge and a flat edge that define a hollow cavity. A cylindrical cavity may be adjacent the hollow cavity and at least partially defined by the semi-circular edge. The cylindrical cavity may be configured to retain a strut assembly. A mounting interface may be coupled to the semi-circular edge and the flat edge. A torsion interface may be disposed adjacent the cylindrical cavity and configured to receive a torsion link. The thin-skin support member may be made using additive manufacturing and thus may have a grain structure grown in the direction of material being added.

A porous apparatus includes a first layer and a second layer. The second layer has a plurality of struts. At least some of the struts define a porous geometry defining a plurality of faces, at least one of the plurality of the faces at least partially confronting the first layer. Each face is bounded by intersecting struts at vertices. Less than all of the vertices of each face of the porous geometry at least partially confronting the first layer are connected by a strut to the first layer. A process of producing the at least partially porous structure includes depositing and scanning metal powder layers. At least some of the scanned metal powder layers form either one or both of a portion of a first section of the structure and a portion of a second section of the structure formed by at least the struts defining the porous geometry.

The invention provides a method of manufacturing a transition piece that has a high degree of freedom in adjustment of a length, a shape, or the like, can carry out a dissimilar metal welding easily, and is easy to perform, and a transition piece. The transition piece includes one end having the same composition as one material to be welded, another end having the same composition as another material to be welded, and an intermediate layer formed between the one end and the other end. The composition of the one end and the composition of the other end become the same as approaching a center. In the method of manufacturing the transition piece according to the invention, at least the intermediate layer among the one end, the other end, and the intermediate layer is formed by a additive manufacturing method.

A thin-skin support member is provided. The thin-skin support member may include a semi-circular edge and a flat edge that define a hollow cavity. A cylindrical cavity may be adjacent the hollow cavity and at least partially defined by the semi-circular edge. The cylindrical cavity may be configured to retain a strut assembly. A mounting interface may be coupled to the semi-circular edge and the flat edge. A torsion interface may be disposed adjacent the cylindrical cavity and configured to receive a torsion link. The thin-skin support member may be made using additive manufacturing and thus may have a grain structure grown in the direction of material being added.

A Ni-base superalloy composition to be used for powder-based additive manufacturing (AM) technology, such as selective laser melting (SLM) or electron beam melting (EBM). The cracking susceptibility during an AM process is considerably reduced by controlling the amount of elements, especially Hf, that form low-melting eutectics.