1. School of Materials and Chemistry, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
2. Shi-changxu Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China et al.
Wire-feed electron beam additive manufacturing is becoming popular in metal additive manufacturing due to its advantages of high energy density and vacuum protection. In this paper, the up-to-date research and development of wire-feed electron beam additive manufacturing are reviewed, with a novel coaxial electron beam wire feeding additive manufacturing introduced. In this review manuscript, the process-induced defects, microstructures, and mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy fabricated by conventional wire-feed electron beam additive manufacturing and this novel coaxial electron beam wire feeding additive manufacturing are compared and discussed. Coaxial electron beam wire feeding additive manufacturing is expected to deposit Ti alloy components with finer and more equiaxed β grains. Finally, combined with the main problems of the research status, the future development of wire-feed electron beam additive manufacturing technology is suggested and forecasted.