The work is devoted to a review of modern achievements in the field of wire-feed electron beam additive manufacturing. The features of structure formation in aluminum, copper, titanium, nickel-based alloys, and steels during 3D printing are shown. Aspects of directional solidification during the production of components from various metals and alloys are considered. The prospects for obtaining composite and functionally graded materials based on various metals and alloys using wire-feed electron beam additive manufacturing are determined. The regularities of the structure modification and hardening of additively manufactured materials by the method of friction stir processing were considered. The main purpose of the review is to present additive manufacturing methods, the main focus being on the wire-feed electron beam additive manufacturing of metal alloys.

The results of investigating the structure and properties of multilayered bimetallic “steel–copper” macrocomposite systems, obtained by wire-feed electron beam additive manufacturing, are presented in the paper. The features of boundary formation during 3D printing are revealed when changing the filaments of stainless steel and copper. Inhomogeneities in the distribution of steel and copper in the boundary zone were detected. Interphase interaction occurs both in the steel and copper parts of the structural boundary: Cu particles with an average size of 5 µm are formed in the iron matrix; Fe particles with an average size of 10 µm are formed in the copper matrix. It was revealed that such structural elements, as solid solutions of both copper and iron, are formed in the boundary zone, with additional mutual dissolution of alloying elements and mechanical mixtures of system components. The presence of the disc-shaped precipitations randomly located in the matrix was revealed in the structure of the “copper–steel” boundary by transmission electron microscopy; this is associated with rapid cooling of alloys and the subsequent thermal effect at lower temperatures during the application of subsequent layers. The existence of these disc-shaped precipitations of steel, arranged randomly in the Cu matrix, allows us to draw conclusions on the spinodal decomposition of alloying elements of steel. The characteristics of mechanical and micromechanical properties of a bimetallic multilayered composite with a complex formed structure lie in the range of characteristics inherent in additive steel and additive copper.

Novel composite CuA19Mn2/Udimet-500 alloy walls with different content of the Udimet 500 were built using electron-beam double-wire-feed additive manufacturing. Intermixing both metals within the melted pool resulted in dissolving nickel and forcing out the aluminum from bronze. The resulting phases were NiAl particles and grains, M₂₃C₆/NiAl core/shell particles and Cu-Ni-Al solid solution. Precipitation of these phases resulted in the increased hardness and tensile strength as well as reduced ductility of the composite alloys. Such a hardening resulted in improving the wear resistance as compared to that of source aluminum bronze.