Arcam to grant academic institutions developer mode access to its EBM A2X
July 5, 2018
Isak Elfström, Vice President, Research, Arcam (Courtesy Arcam EBM)
Arcam EBM, a GE Additive company, has announced that it will now give universities and academic institutes access to its EBM A2X system’s development mode at no extra cost. The machine’s development mode allows users access to a wider range of parameters to enable the development of new materials and processes, while preserving the system’s security features.
Designed for the Electron Beam Melting (EBM) of materials that require elevated process temperatures, Arcam’s EBM A2X is used widely in materials science research and is currently installed in thirteen universities and seven institutes in North America, Europe and Asia. To access the machine’s development mode, each of the academic organisations currently using the A2X will now be able to request a hardware key unique to their specific machine.
Speaking on the decision to offer access to the machine’s development mode, Isak Elfström, Vice President, Research, Arcam EBM, explained, “For many years, Electron Beam Melting and the Arcam A2X have been a go-to system for academic researchers in materials science. One thing we hear regularly is that faculty and students are hungry to push the boundaries of their field and fulfil the potential of additive.”
“Arcam’s own roots are in academia with the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden,” he continued. “So, we know first-hand all the benefits and potential of a close working relationship between industry and academia. That is why we’ve decided to further open up the A2X system’s development mode for material and process development, at no cost, for universities all over the world.”
In addition to opening up development mode for those organisations already using the A2X, Elfström stated that universities and institutes not currently using the system but with an interest in exploring the integration of EBM into their research will have the opportunity to purchase one of ten systems it is making available at a special price.
This initiative has the potential to benefit GE Additive and Arcam as well as academic institutions, he added. “We have only just scratched the surface of what is possible with EBM technology. With this initiative we hope to further encourage our academic customers to join us in exploring and showing the possibilities with this technology and in doing so influence our product development in the mid to long-term.”
