Nikon believes metal Additive Manufacturing can become its next billion-dollar business. Backed by significant cumulative investment, the company is concentrating on defence, qualification strategy and production economics rather than general rapid expansion. Hamid Zarringhalam, in conversation with Martin McMahon and Nick Williams, explores how semiconductor-style process control and long equipment lifecycles underpin Nikon’s approach – and why execution, not enthusiasm, will determine how AM delivers durable industrial scale.
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Following our interview with Hamid Zarringhalam in the preceding article, Metal AM travelled to Nikon Advanced Manufacturing’s Long Beach, California facility to examine how the company’s defence-led strategy is being executed in practice. Reporting for Metal AM magazine, Martin McMahon toured the production floors, qualification laboratories and large-format NXG installations supporting U.S. defence programmes, assessing how Nikon is translating capital investment and policy alignment into repeatable process control, production throughput and industrial-scale capability.
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For Colnago, one of cycling’s most prestigious brands, the Steelnovo represents a showcase project – a modern interpretation of what the ‘perfect’ road bike might look like. Instead of the titanium more commonly used for additively manufactured frame lugs, the company worked with Additiva Srl and ATLIX to develop complex 316L steel nodes combined with Columbus steel tubing. Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine’s Nick Williams explores how the project demonstrates the potential of AM to modernise traditional materials while preserving the distinctive ride quality associated with steel frames.
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In high-temperature propulsion applications, it is materials that set the boundaries of what is possible. Additive Manufacturing may have changed how we build components, but it hasn’t necessarily changed what extremes these components can endure in service. NASA’s GRX-810 oxide-dispersion-strengthened superalloy tackles that constraint head-on: a high-temperature alloy designed, unlike legacy alloys, specifically for AM. Here, NASA’s Tim Smith and Paul Gradl explain how GRX-810 was developed, what has been demonstrated to date, and the pathway to commercial success.
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Ahead of its Formnext launch, Metal AM was invited to EOS’s facilities near Munich, Germany, for an exclusive preview of the new EOS M4 ONYX and in-depth discussions with the developers, product managers, and senior leadership behind it. What emerges is a development story shaped by customer priorities: not a departure into record-breaking extremes, but a focused evolution designed to deliver what production users value most. Dr Martin McMahon, Nick Williams, and Emma Lawn examine the technical priorities behind this response – process stability and repeatability, scan-field strategy, powder and waste handling, and the software controls supporting qualified series production.
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As manufacturers push towards higher Additive Manufacturing throughput, the limitations of traditional support removal methods become increasingly visible. Manual practices cannot reliably meet the safety, repeatability, and cost targets required for industrial Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB). toolcraft’s SupportBlaster 320-HA offers a semi-automated alternative, using dry-ice pellets to detach supports in a controlled manner. In this article, Joseph Kowen reviews the technology’s development, underlying process physics, and experimental data, highlighting its relevance for more scalable metal AM production.
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As metal Additive Manufacturing shifts toward larger, higher-value components, conventional AM simulation often fails to scale and remains focused on prediction rather than actionable process improvement. PanOptimization’s PanX seeks to address this gap with a scalable, high-fidelity Finite Element Analysis (FEA) solver for PBF-LB and DED that supports feed-forward optimisation of parameters, timing, and distortion compensation. In this article, Erik Denlinger and Pan Michaleris examine the technical innovations enabling next-generation AM simulation and the commercial implications for throughput and yield, as well as market directions.
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Additive Manufacturing’s promise isn’t in ‘printing everything’ – it is in knowing exactly where to apply the technology. At Domin, a UK manufacturer of motion control products, CEO Marcus Pont’s team uses the technology sparingly yet decisively, exploiting AM-enabled innovations and its potential to deliver complex internal geometries. The twist? A focus on steel. Too often overlooked for titanium or aluminium, maraging steel underpins robust, precise, and efficient hydraulic products. Martin McMahon explores the disciplined use of AM as powerful tool: performance first, costs controlled, and selectively delivering impact at scale.
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While AI is accelerating innovation across industries, engineering design remains slow, manual and opaque, constrained by tools such as CAD that capture geometry but not intent. In this article, LEAP 71 co-founder Lin Kayser argues that to realise the full potential of Additive Manufacturing, and enable meaningful AI in hardware development, we have to rethink how machines are designed. His solution is Computational Engineering, a system that encodes physics, constraints, and logic directly into code, transforming engineering into a scalable, intelligent process.
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Additive Manufacturing is gaining traction in regulated industries, but broader adoption depends on proven qualification frameworks. This article explores the methodology developed by Qualified AM GmbH, demonstrated through case studies in the semiconductor, rail, and remote manufacturing environments. Whether applying ISO/ASTM 52920, 52904, 52930, 52928, 52901 or industry standards such as ISO 9001, AS/EN 9100, and ISO 13485, Qualified AM supports industry with a scalable, standards-based approach to compliant and decentralised AM production.
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Ten years ago, in the first-ever issue of Metal AM magazine, Materials Solutions was featured as one of the industry’s rising stars. A decade on, with ongoing questions about the wider industry’s progress, we returned to see what the company’s journey reveals. Much has changed, including its acquisition by Siemens Energy (formerly Siemens AG), which fuelled significant growth. Yet the company remains firmly focused on its core expertise: processing nickel-base superalloys for high-temperature applications. Martin McMahon reports on its journey to large-scale series production, including a milestone agreement with Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace and a major investment in Nikon SLM Solutions’ NXG XII 600 machines.
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As Additive Manufacturing pushes the boundaries of design, post-processing remains a major challenge – in particular powder removal in Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB). But what if the digital twin of a part could not only optimise its design, but also predict and streamline powder removal? Here, Joseph Kowen explores how Solukon’s SPR-Pathfinder software achieves this, using advanced simulation to map powder flow and automate depowdering, ensuring that even the most intricate designs remain manufacturable.
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ValCUN’s Molten Metal Deposition (MMD) technology is a wire-based Additive Manufacturing solution designed to improve deployability and cost efficiency in aluminium part production. While applicable across various industrial sectors, it is also being explored for defence applications due to its potential for in-field manufacturing. With its inherent robustness, and the elimination of powder handling, MMD offers a deployable, user-friendly solution for producing critical parts in remote or demanding environments, as well as for seamless integration into industrial production settings.
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In metal Additive Manufacturing, precision and reliability are critical, particularly in highly regulated industries. Ensuring consistent quality requires meticulous laser calibration and process control. 3D Systems addresses this need by integrating advanced laser beam analysis and power measurement solutions from MKS’s Ophir brand. As the company reports, by leveraging Ophir’s high-precision sensors, 3D Systems enhances laser performance monitoring and process stability, helping its customers meet stringent industry standards and produce the highest-quality metal AM components.
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The era of computational design is reshaping the engineering and product development landscape, enabling industries to tackle complex design challenges with unprecedented speed and efficiency. This article explores how NASA, using software from nTop, leveraged cutting-edge tools and methodologies in a unique application development. In combination with the capabilities of Additive Manufacturing, the project saw a scientific instrument component’s original material, beryllium, replaced with an aluminium alloy, providing a significant part cost reduction whilst exceeding all necessary performance requirements.
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With seven structural titanium parts flying on every Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a Master Supply Agreement with Airbus for the A350, and projects with the likes of Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, Norsk Titanium is setting the pace when it comes to the production of airframe components by Additive Manufacturing. By using wire instead of powder and its own proprietary version of the Directed Energy Deposition (DED) process, the company combines high deposition rates with aerospace-grade materials properties. Martin McMahon visited the company on behalf of Metal AM magazine.
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AM is at a pivotal stage, evolving from a prototyping tool to a scalable manufacturing solution. This transition necessitates real-time, process-specific inspection to ensure consistent part quality. Phase3D is meeting this need with real-time inspection solutions specifically for powder-bed processes. Its technology enables manufacturers to inspect each layer during production, enhancing product development, optimising parameters, and improving process control for end-use production. Here, Niall O’Dowd and Noah Mostow dive into the specific applications of the company’s Fringe Inspection technology.
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There is a growing interest in additively manufactured pure tungsten, primarily propelled by the expected demand for tungsten components in future fusion power plants. Here, Additive Manufacturing veterans and PBF-EB enthusiasts, Ulf Ackelid and Ulric Ljungblad – both of Sweden’s Freemelt AB – provide insights into the AM of tungsten and the benefits of using an electron beam as the energy source. This article is a standalone continuation of previous PBF-EB articles in Metal AM, published in the Summer 2020, Autumn 2022, and Summer 2023 issues
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In the race to improve the productivity of PBF-LB Additive Manufacturing, machine OEMs have generally taken the path of adding more lasers. nLIGHT takes the view that it’s not necessarily just more lasers that are needed, but beam-shaping lasers. By using dynamic beam shaping technology, significant increases in the productivity, stability and metallurgical capabilities of PBF-LB have been demonstrated. Given the technology’s recent commercial success, with adoption by Aconity3D, AMCM, EOS and DMG Mori, we asked the nLIGHT team to review beam shaping technology and its potential impact on the AM industry.
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For many decades, North America’s Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) has organised its PM Design Excellence Awards competition in order to showcase the capabilities of the Powder Metallurgy industry. With the growing commercial success of metal powder-based Additive Manufacturing, the competition is seeing an ever larger number of entrants from this sector. Award-winning parts in this year’s competition include parts not only produced by Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion, but also a wide range of innovative sinter-based AM processes.
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