LINARES, Spain, Jul 24, 2026 — The Linares-based manufacturer built the tribute piece in 20 hours using wire-laser metal deposition, the technology it develops and patents in Spain.
Meltio has printed its own version of the football World Cup trophy in stainless steel, following Spain’s 1-0 win over Argentina on 19 July that gave the country its second world title.
The idea came up inside the company during the tournament, half as a joke, and turned into a technical exercise. The trophy shape is one of the harder things to attempt with metal additive manufacturing: continuous curvature, a cross-section that changes along the whole height, no flat reference surfaces, and overhangs from base to top.
The piece was built at Meltio’s facility in Linares (Jaén) on a Meltio Engine integration kit for industrial robots, which mounts the company’s laser deposition head on a robot arm. It measures 29.5 cm tall and 13 cm in diameter, weighs 13 kg, and took 20 hours of printing.
Meltio’s technology, wire-laser metal deposition (W-LMD), belongs to the Directed Energy Deposition family. It feeds standard commercial welding wire into a melt pool created by lasers, building the part layer by layer close to its final shape. Using wire instead of metal powder makes the process cleaner and safer to run, and leaves far less wasted material and less machining afterwards than cutting a part from solid stock.
The piece is a tribute, is not for sale, and is not a licensed or official product. It will remain on display at the company’s facility in Linares, unless the champions themselves ask for it.
The same technology is used daily in defence, aerospace, automotive, oil and gas, mining and heavy industry, both to manufacture components and to repair worn parts.
About Meltio
Meltio is a Spanish metal additive manufacturing company founded in 2019 and headquartered in Linares (Jaén). Its patented wire-laser metal deposition technology is used in more than 60 countries, with over 650 systems installed, a network of more than 55 partners and over 70 universities and technical centres. For more information, visit https://meltio3d.com.
