Dutch company Additive Industries, which first unveiled its flagship MetalFab industrial 3D printing system in 2015 and officially launched it in 2017, was very busy last year.At Formnext 2023, the metal 3D printer manufacturer showcased the MetalFab G2, but at the 2024 trade show, the latest iteration—the MetalFab 300 Flex—was on display.The Flex, so named for the ability to change its build platform size, generated a lot of market awareness, according to Strategic Marketing Director Kartik Rao, who will be a participant in our upcoming Additive Manufacturing Strategies summit.
He and I recently had a chat about the company’s printers, applications, and more.“We haven’t been one of the largest metal AM players, but I think the Flex launch generated some market traction,” Rao told me.“We got more leads at Formnext than before, so that’s trending in the right direction for us.”The launch customer for the MetalFab 300 Flex was Dutch 3D printing service bureau K3D, which purchased two systems to serve the automotive, industrial, energy, aerospace, and defense markets.Rao said that with the original MetalFab, people “unflatteringly referred to it as ‘the bus,’ because it’s a really long system with all the automation.” But the Flex is a more accessible machine for people just getting started in metal AM and with a much smaller CapEx.“It’s initiated discussions with customers that I think would not have come to us before,” he said.
“What we’ve been able to see is definitely many more opportunities building up in the pipeline now for that system.It’s been successful for us, and we were glad to announce K3D as a customer.”A service bureau like K3D was really “an ideal use case” for the Flex, according to Rao, because it needed the flexible build size “without having to carry all the cost overheads of a large system.” But other exciting opportunities have been coming up for the system, and the company’s other printers, in new markets as well.RF Antenna ComponentsRao said the company already had a strong install base in France and the Netherlands, but that it’s starting to see more traction in other parts of Europe, such as Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, and Switzerland; this last is reflected in Swissto12.It was announced at Formnext that the Swiss startup had purchased four of the company’s dual-core MetalFabG2 models to make its radio frequency (RF) antenna components for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.“That’s a booming market,” Rao said.
“I think it’s one of those killer applications for metal AM.”A monolithic Ka-band feedchain, which previously would have had to have multiple parts assembled.Image courtesy of Swissto12.Constellations of LEO satellites are needed for Internet connectivity on phones, so that is a booming market indeed! Kartik explained that by using metal 3D printing for waveguides and antenna arrays, you no longer need lots of extra joints and screws, because multiple parts can be consolidated into one, which is another “functional benefit.” Plus, the technology allows for more complex designs.“So those are all the reasons why you would make that application with metal AM, but I think what’s really interesting is they could have gone to any other machine vendor to make parts.So why did they come to Additive Industries?”There are likely several reasons for this, starting with the company’s full field lasers, which means that “every single one of our lasers can sweep all the way across the build plate.” This, along with the printer’s larger build size, enables much better control of dimensional tolerances.
Another reason is the printer’s built-in automation features, such as build setup, laser calibration, and integrated powder handling.The final reason Kartik mentioned for companies that make RF antenna parts to use Additive Industries’ technology is productivity, as its systems are modular.“You can add a second core to your system, and what that means is that the optic chamber can move back and forth across the two cores.So when you’re cleaning one out, the other one is printing, and when that finishes, it slides across and starts printing on the next one.
So you never have any laser downtime.“So maximizing the laser uptime is key to productivity.And that’s, again, the automation kicking in.”Image courtesy of Additive Industries.As Rao said, RF components seem to be a “sweet spot” for Additive Industries, “in conjunction with the other applications which have been proven on our system, like rocket components.” If you’re looking to print the “big bell” of a rocket engine, you’ll need a bigger 3D printer than what Additive Industries offers.But the smaller components above the bell, made of Inconel, is “a fantastic sweet spot for the MetalFab.”LPBF for AutomotiveI remembered that one of the major applications I saw showcased in various parts at the company’s Formnext booth in 2023 was automotive.
There were several Formula 1 parts, as well as a small, hollow tooling nozzle used to secure the window frames of mid-sized Volkswagen SUVs.In the car, the window is glued to the frame, and the nozzle deposits a thin line of glue around the frame so rubber foam can be attached.“This project, born from the collaboration between Volkswagen and Additive Industries has demonstrated the significant business case benefits, especially in terms of cost and time, that the MetalFab system can bring in the Automotive mass production sector,” according to the introduction to a case study about the nozzle.Image: Sarah SaundersRao called the automotive market “interesting” and said it represents about 10-15% of the company’s install base. I asked if he had any thoughts about automotive trends in the near future, and he believes that there will be “a renewed focus on laser powder bed fusion within automotive.”“Over the last few years there’s been a lot of attention on binder jetting, but I don’t think binder jetting has quite worked out in the way that the automotive companies thought it would,” he said.“There’s challenges with achieving the right costs and the right part quality and so on.
This is why I think there’s going to be a renewed focus on laser powder bed fusion over the coming years, which is good for us.”He also believes some of the larger companies will become more engaged with automotive, as Additive Industries is “seeing interest both in the U.S.and Europe now on the automotive side.” Rao also noted that tooling—another Additive Industries application—is “really the driver for the automotive industry” in Europe, while he sees “more emphasis on the actual components themselves rather than the tooling parts” in the U.S.“I think people are starting to realize it’s these industries rather than commercial aviation, which are really gonna be pushing forward,” he said in regards to automotive 3D printing.“Like 10 years ago, there was a lot of press about commercial aviation adopting metal AM.
But I haven’t really seen it in the volumes that they were originally claiming.”Process MonitoringCircling back around to Formnext, Rao said the company also marketed a process monitoring tool kit through a collaboration with Additive Assurance.The Australian company has a piece of hardware called AMiRIS that sits on the front of MetalFab systems for in-process monitoring, which is “becoming increasingly useful in metal AM because people want to be able to cut down on the post-printing costs.”“People are spending a lot of money post-printing doing X-ray CT scanning, and the CapEx for that is significant,” he said.“And then the people that you need to hire and the amount of expertise that goes into looking at all the reports and everything else is quite significant.
So any savings that could be made, and avoiding the amount of CT scanning that people do, is helpful.And also anything that we can do to reduce the amount of validation testing that people are having to do, like constantly printing tensile bars.”Additive Assurance AMiRIS mounted on MetalFAB G2.Everyone is tired of seeing build plates just full of tensile test specimens, but how do you get around the need for testing? Rao says that part of the solution for this “pain point” is process monitoring, which can help reduce costs.The AMiRIS kit developed by Additive Assurance can also be used on multiple printers, which he believes is very beneficial.“We very much like working with third parties because they’re the best.
They’re trying to create the technology and they’re going five levels deeper than we could in this,” Rao said.“And we’d much rather work with third parties like Additive Assurance, who can be the subject matter experts and develop the best in class tool toolkits.”Additive Industries wants to be able to integrate with these third parties and remain an open platform “for these additional bits of hardware and software, so that the customers can pick and choose as they wish.”“We wish to be open, that’s part of our DNA,” he said.“We want to be as open as we can because the reality is the entire AM landscape is evolving.
There’s a limit to how much control you can exercise and be closed to all these innovations that are happening around us.”But he did note that while the company wants to be as open as possible, they need to do so in a way that won’t have them integrating everything in their systems, “because we also understand that there’s a limit to how much the cost of the systems can go up.”“These aren’t toys, they’re production machines.So we don’t want to keep adding to the cost more and more by adding more bells and whistles to the system,” he said.Through its modular systems, Additive Industries gives its customers a choice with what they add to their printers.The customer knows “at what price point the business case is going to stick for their application,” so it’s in their hands.The MetalFab 3D printer at IMTS 2024.Rao told me that Additive Industries is aiming for another product launch at RAPID 2025 in Detroit this April, so that’s exciting news.
Additionally, in just a few weeks, Rao will be attending our AMS 2025 in New York City, and moderating a Mass Manufacturing section panel about The Metal Toolbelt, with speakers from DMG MORI USA, Inc., Desktop Metal, Mantle, and HP.You can register for the summit here.Subscribe to Our Email NewsletterStay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
