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.
