Electron beam melting technology offers various benefits like the reduced product cycle time, customization, flexibility, high energy density and less material wastage. However, electron beam melting still suffers from redundant usage of support structure material while fabricating overhang structures. The support structures not only consume additional material, but also require additional time for their design and removal. The optimized support structures have to be designed in such a way that they consume minimum material, are easy to remove and are free from defects. The aim of the current study is to study the effect of support design and process parameters on the performance of the support structures (cost and quality) during additive manufacturing of Ti6Al4V alloy via electron beam melting. The results show that the support structures parameters play a significant role in the cost of the applied support and the accuracy of the fabricated object. It was found that with appropriate selection of support design and process parameters, it is possible to reduce the support volume and hence the fabrication cost in metal additive manufacturing (AM). A tooth height of 3 mm, no support offset of 2 mm, and fragmentation separation width of 0.8 mm resulted in lower support volumes without having any effect on the quality of the overhang. This study systematically investigated the support structure design and their outcomes on overhang fabrication. Its conclusions could add value to the researchers working on additive manufacturing of Ti6Al4V alloy by electron beam melting.

电子束熔化技术具有多种优势，例如缩短了产品周期，降低了定制性，提高了灵活性，提高了能量密度并减少了材料浪费。然而，在制造悬垂结构时，电子束熔化仍遭受支撑结构材料的冗余使用的困扰。支撑结构不仅消耗额外的材料，而且还需要更多的时间来设计和移除它们。优化的支撑结构必须以这样的方式设计：它们消耗最少的材料，易于去除且没有缺陷。本研究的目的是研究在通过电子束熔化法增材制造Ti6Al4V合金过程中，支架设计和工艺参数对支架结构性能（成本和质量）的影响。结果表明，支撑结构参数在所应用支撑的成本和所制造物体的准确性中起着重要作用。结果发现，与支撑设计和工艺参数的适当选择，有可能减小支持体积并因此制造成本在金属添加剂制造（AM）。齿高为3毫米，无支撑偏移为2毫米，碎片分离宽度为0.8毫米，导致了较低的支撑体积，而对悬垂质量没有任何影响。这项研究系统地研究了支撑结构设计及其在悬垂制造中的结果。其结论可以为研究人员通过电子束熔化法增材制造Ti6Al4V合金增添价值。