Additive Industries to establish UK Process & Application Development Centre
March 19, 2018
Additive Industries’ MetalFab1 Process & Application Development Tool (Courtesy Additive Industries)
Additive Industries, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, will expand its operations for industrial metal Additive Manufacturing equipment and software development, sales and service to the United Kingdom and Ireland with the establishment of a UK Process & Application Development Centre.
The expansion follows the successful implementation of its systems in Europe at companies like Airbus, Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 team and GKN. The new centre will be run by Dr Mark Beard, who is said to bring over fourteen years of experience in the AM industry and previously served as Technical Director at 3TRPD, a UK provider of metal Additive Manufacturing services.
“Over several decades, the UK has established itself as one of the global leaders in knowledge and successful application of Additive Manufacturing in series production and end-use components,” he explained. “Strong academic research and established AM users in medical, aerospace, industrial and motorsport sectors have developed a mature, standardised and qualified supply chain for these markets. [Additive Industries’ MetalFAB1 system] is next logical step for these users as it is the first AM machine capable of true series production.”
The MetalFAB1 is stated to be the only metal AM system on the market that integrates multi-laser powder bed fusion with the post-processing stages to enable consistent quality and automated operation. The UK facility will house a number of MetalFAB1 demonstration systems and support process and application development for the UK and Ireland.
Additive Industries stated that it plans to hire a team of ‘talented AM professionals’ to provide customers with support for the full manufacturing process chain and enable companies to realise series production for AM components.
