Thursday, March 28, 2024

BEAMIT Invests in GE Additive’s M Line System to Meet Demand from Aerospace & Defense Customers for Large Metal Additive Parts

LICHTENFELS, Germany, Jun 8, 2022 – BEAMIT Group (BEAMIT), partly owned by SANDVIK, has invested in a GE Additive Concept Laser M Line system to meet growing demand from its aerospace and defense customers for both large format metal 3D-printed components and assistance in industrializing additive production. 

Andrea Scanavini, Chief Operating Officer, BEAMIT (center) with GE Additive’s Fausto Asvisio (left) and Wolfgang Lauer (right) with an M Line at GE Additive Lichtenfels.

This investment comes six months after Avio Aero, BEAMIT and GE Additive signed a letter of intent regarding a strategic technology collaboration. BEAMIT is a longstanding customer of GE Additive and operates a fleet of Concept Laser and Arcam EBM machines, including the Mlab, M2 and X Line platforms, as well as two Q10plus machines across its three manufacturing plants and its subsidiary PRES-X.

Demand for Larger Additive Parts

“As part of our ‘one-stop-shop’ strategy, we have continued to invest in our value chain over the past seven years and have also achieved rigorous ISO 9001, AS 9100 quality certifications and NADCAP accreditation needed to service the aerospace sector. That investment has not gone unnoticed and we continue to attract new aerospace, space and defense customers, while supporting existing customers who have already commenced their additive journey,” said Mauro Antolotti, President of BEAMIT Group.

“Today, we are seeing an increasing demand from customers for much larger, more complex parts, and in higher volumes— this is why we have invested in our first M Line system. Based on our strong and well-recognized expertise in discovering new applications for additive manufacturing, we see in the new platform M Line, combined with our full cutting edge end-to-end value chain, the key for a technological leap towards significantly increased production volumes in the near future. The BEAMIT team is ready to explore the potential of the M Line and continuously improve the industrialization process by digitally connecting the system with all the subsequent post-processing phases. We will work closely with GE Additive’s AddWorks consultants to make this development even faster,” said Andrea Scanavini, Chief Commercial Officer of BEAMIT Group.

The rise in demand for larger parts that BEAMIT is experiencing is replicated across the commercial aerospace, space and defense sectors, globally. Additive users across the aerospace supply chain continue to invest in innovation and in doing so continue to set the bar high for the deployment of increasingly mature metal additive applications. The progression in terms of complexity and volume is a reflection of the evolving sophistication of in-house additive teams, one-stop shop companies like BEAMIT with an end-to-end approach, and the wider aerospace additive ecosystem.

Enabling Industrialization Faster

This latest phase of industrialization builds on widespread success in deploying metal additive across the aerospace industry, where users are able to demonstrate tangible return-on-investment, in terms of productivity and cost-part reduction, and are now able to make a tangible business case for scaling their additive operations.

“Being closely aligned through our own activities across GE Aviation, including Avio Aero, and many other customers in aerospace, we anticipated this next wave of industrialization. For some time our common objective with BEAMIT has been to work closely together to enable their customers to make the shift to industrialization as seamless as possible, we feel now quite proud that this becomes a reality,” said Rob Dean, GE Additive’s AddWorks senior leader in Europe.

Once installed at its facility in Italy, the BEAMIT team will push the utilization of M Line to its full potential in terms of quality, productivity and driving cost out for additive production, also with the support of GE Additive’s AddWorks consultants.

The M Line has been developed for high-quality, high throughput scenarios and lends itself well to highly-regulated industries such as the aerospace and medical sectors. While it is intuitive and easy to operate, the M Line is a highly-advanced, industrialized production system that is well-suited to customers who have experienced metal additive users for many years and have already started to scale production volumes. 

“Customers, like BEAMIT, recognize that GE Additive’s experience and products can help them move to serial production quicker. It’s great to see BEAMIT invest in the M Line and build on our strategic technology collaboration that will not only benefit the aerospace industry, but also the wider industrial additive community here in Europe and around the world,” said Wolfgang Lauer, product line manager – M Line, GE Additive.

About BEAMIT Group

BEAMIT Group has been operating Additive Manufacturing (AM) with metal powders for over 25 years and is today one of the most advanced AM service providers in the world. The company serves some of the most demanding industries, like aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, racing and industrial engineering – through its strategic positioning as a One-Stop-Shop supplier. BEAMIT Group was the first company to become a truly global AM hub, offering a fully integrated value chain. The company is an approved supplier for serial production by many leading OEMs, and holds a significant number of quality certifications, including AS/EN 9100:2018 for aerospace, IATF automotive, NADCAP accreditation for heat treatment processes and laboratories, and NADCAP accreditation for welding – additive manufacturing commodity.

In 2019, Sandvik acquired a significant stake in BEAMIT. Since then, BEAMIT Group has fully incorporated service bureau ZARE (acquired in 2020). It acquired UK-based 3T Additive Manufacturing in 2021 and holds a significant participation in PRES-X – specialized in high-end post processing for 3D printing – since 2020. The BEAMIT Group’s HQ is located in Fornovo di Taro (Parma, Italy). Today the company counts over 140 employees and close to 60 dedicated AM systems, distributed across 7 facilities in Italy and UK.

About Sandvik Additive Manufacturing

Sandvik Additive Manufacturing has a world-leading position in metal powder with the widest range of AM-alloys on the market. The company has also made sizeable investments into a wide range of AM printing technologies since 2013. Adding 160 years of leading expertise in materials technology, 75 years in post processing methods like metal cutting, sintering and heat treatment, Sandvik has well established and leading competence across the entire AM-value chain. In 2019, Sandvik acquired a significant stake in BEAMIT, a leading European-based AM service provider, and after this, the BEAMIT Group has acquired 100% of ZARE and 3T Additive Manufacturing, bringing together three leading AM service bureaus in Europe – to create one of the largest independent AM service providers in the world, serving the most demanding industries.  
Sandvik AB is a high-tech and global engineering group with approximately 44,000 employees and sales of approximately 99 billion SEK in more than 150 countries (2021). The company was founded in Sweden in 1862 and is listed on the Stockholm stock exchange since 1901. 

About GE Additive

GE Additive – part of GE (NYSE: GE) is a world leader in metal additive design and manufacturing, a pioneering process that has the power and potential to transform businesses. Through our integrated offering of additive experts, advanced machines, and quality powders, we empower our customers to build innovative new products. Products that solve manufacturing challenges, improve business outcomes, and help change the world for the better. GE Additive includes additive machine brands Concept Laser and Arcam EBM, along with additive powder supplier AP&C.

Nitin Patil
Nitin Patil
Editor and Director of Content, DailyCADCAM.com. Nitin completed his Master's in Mass Communication & Journalism and having 13 years of work experience as an editor, content writer with renowned international technical magazines and media companies. He is associated with CAD,CAM industry since 2008.
spot_img

Latest Posts