Equipment and a Technique for Manufacturing Shaped Products from Refractory Metals Using the 3D-Printing Method

Abstract

The original equipment has been developed and the feasibility has been shown of manufacturing shaped products from refractory metals by 3D printing using a high-pressure electric arc in a protective gas atmosphere. The proposed technique is performed using layer-by-layer metal deposition using local electric arc skull melting. In experiments aimed at manufacturing molybdenum crucibles, it has been shown that the speed of 3D printing is higher by 2–3 orders of magnitude than the speed of printing by selective laser sintering.