Welcome to the Special technologies team site

1 electron beam welding, 1a electron beam, 2 electric glass vacuum feed-throughs, 2a glass powder, 3 thin layers, 4 vacuum soldering, 4a vacuum furnace, 5 design of the electron beam welders, 6 magnetron sputtering, 7 dynamic impact tests of thin layers, 8 electron beam machiningSpecial technologies group

The Special Technologies team is part of the Electron Optics department of the Institute of the Scientific Instruments AS CR, v.v.i. in Brno. The team deals mainly with research and development of technologies and devices which are essential for electron optics, vacuum and ultra-vacuum devices.

The most important technologies are welding and machining by the electron beam, vacuum soldering, development and production of the vacuum feed-througs.

Participation at 51st International engineering fair MSV 2009 Brno

Institute of Scientific Instruments' booth at MSV 2009 - Brno

The Institute of scientific instruments AS CR, took in the days 14th to 18th September 2009 active part at the 51st International engineering fair in Brno, see ISI pages.

In this activities our team presented, in full operation, our electron beam welder MEBW-60/2-E. We have also exposed samples of electron beam welded parts and examples of nano-layers and X-ray optics. Members of our team answered questions of visitors concerning electron beam welding. The capabilities of our MEBW-60/2-E welder have been demonstrated by „engraving“ digital photos or drawings on metal surface by means of electron beam,

The visitors could also have found other informations in a prospect technologies and desk-top electron beam welder.

Weldability of various materials

The possibility to join metal parts by fusion welding depends first of all on their metallurgical properties. This problematic is extremely wide, therefore, in this paper, we shall restrict our interest to only some specific questions, more important for our needs. Apart from those classical, commonly used materials, also some exotic ones, applied mainly in new branches of research and industry are also needed. This needs accelerated in the second half of 20. century the development of new methods of welding, applying laser or electron beam. The welding by electron beam in vacuum proved to be the most suitable, if not the only one applicable method for welding some materials.

Electron beam welder MEBW-60/2

E-beam welder MEBW-60/2

In the year 2005 the representatives of a German firm expressed their interest to include one of our electron beam welders into their production program. It was agreed that building of the prototype will be started at the beginning of the next year, but soon was realized that the existing documentation needs to be thoroughly revised and digitalized. It was also clear that the current electronics is outdated and must be substantially renewed, if it should meet our new demands and the EU standards.

Electron beam in technologies

Heat exchanger welded by electron beam

In the past, as well as today, people looked for ways how to make use of that what the nature offered. The knowledge how to gain, process and use metals, up today belongs to the most important skills. Names of the first known metals, bronze and iron, had given names to the two important historic epochs. The processing of metals can not be done without heating. To the classical methods, fire, gas flame, electric current and electric arc, the new science added two other methods, the laser and electron beams. The technological applications of the latest we shall pursued in the following paper.

What is Electron Beam Welding?

Electron beam welder

The following paper displays a summary of illustrative presentation of electron beam welding. This presentation is a part of Days of Science, taking place regularly in ISI Brno, usually at the beginning of November. The visitors may see in operation an electron beam welding equipment in the laboratory of electron beam welding. The principle and use of the electron beam welder are explained in popular form. The process of welding is practically demonstrated.

Vacuum furnace PZ 810

Working chamber of vacuum furnace PZ 810

Modernized vacuum furnace PZ 810 produced by former company Tesla. The furnace has vertical cylindrical chamber.

Testing of the Impact Load of Thin Hard Nanocomposite, Multilayer and Monolayer Coatings

Dynamic imact test of thin layers - detail view

To evaluate the impact resistance of thin hard nanocomposite, multilayer and monolayer coatings in dynamic loading wear applications an impact test has been used. An impact testing of the coatings was proposed by Knotek et al in the 1990s. During testing the specimen is cyclically loaded by tungsten carbide ball that impacts of the coating/substrate surface. The test simulates a wide range of tribological systems.

Electron beam welder machines in ISI: past&present

Multifunctional vacuum furnace

The Institute of Scientific Instruments (ISI) was founded in 1957. From the very beginning, analytical electron-beam devices, particularly electron microscopes, were designed and produced here. Later technological applications of the e-beam have been developed too.

First technological instrument was a multifunctional vacuum furnace made at group leaded by Dipl. Eng. Ladislav Zobač in 1965, see Fig., with a round working chamber evacuated by a rotary and a diffusion pump (designed also in ISI). The furnace had three different heat-sources: an infra-red heating (molybdenum direct-heated basket), a HF induction heating and a low power e-beam gun (50 kV/5 mA). Possible applications were vacuum soldering/brazing, vacuum remelting and e-beam welding.