EB Welding of Launch Vehicles

The Electron Beam (EB) welding process has gained widespread acceptance in the aerospace industry as an efficient, precise, high quality joining process. Because its optimum performance is realized in a vacuum environment, its use has been limited to welding of fairly small components, where Xray quality, high strength welds are required with minimal part distortion. Larger components can be welded; however, the equipment and operating costs increase with the correspondingly larger vaccum chambers used to house the parts to be welded.