The Californian branch of Eindhoven based Additive Industries has sold 6 MetalFAB1 systems to “a prestigious aerospace company located in California”. The company hasn’t revealed the buyer’s name, nor the exact amount of money that’s involved. The basic version of one MetalFAB1 system has a value of €800,000, but the real sales price depends on different factors, such as configuration and amount of the lasers. Shane Collins, General Manager for Additive Industries North America, Inc., says the deal “validates the Additive Industries’ concept of production-based metal powder bed fusion systems for maximum overall equipment efficiency”.
When the order for six machines arrives at the customer site later this year, it will bring the installed base of MetalFAB1 systems to 10 with more possible in 2020, he adds. “This customer was able to consolidate approximately 700 kilograms of powder in the month of June with the 4 laser MetalFAB1 systems currently in operation. The application represents an inflexion point in metal powder bed fusion part production where candidate parts were typically limited to fist size volumes to meet ROI calculations. With the MetalFAB1 systems, this customer is able to cost-effectively produce over 420 [mm] diameter by 400 [mm] tall parts weighing 180 kilograms.”
This order will bring the North America MetalFAB1 installed base to 17 systems. “The fast growth in North America is partly due to our focus on the aerospace sector and the aeronautics adoption curve for production additive manufacturing,” says Daan Kersten, CEO of Additive Industries. “We expect this growth to further accelerate when our customers publicly release their applications and more companies are able to visualize the large, complex parts that can be manufactured on the MetalFAB1 system in titanium, aluminium, steel and nickel-based alloys.”