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In-Depth Information
owns the rights of the technology. This process uses a laser beam which forms a melt
pool into which metal powder or wire is fed. The technique may, apart from building from
scratch, also be used for repairing parts. Optomec, another US company, promotes a similar
AM technology called Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS). This technology was deve-
loped by Sandia, a laboratory with deep roots in the US defense industry. When the main
inventor of LENS, Dave Keicher, left Sandia for Optomec in 1997 the commercialization
process started and today LENS is a successful part of Optomec's product portfolio.
Another AM company that started around 1997 and still has a successful business is the
Swedish company Arcam. Their technology is called Electron Beam Melting (EBM) and
was developed at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. Arcam sold its
first machinery in 2002 and has made inroads in orthopedic implants and aerospace in-
dustry.
Other European companies involved in metal AM using laser sintering technology is Ger-
man Concept Laser with a process called Lasercusing and the French company Phenix Sys-
tems which was acquired by 3D Systems in 2013.
The obvious wall to break through was low-cost metal printers for hobbyists and small
companies, the first signs of such development started to occur in 2013 when academics
at Michigan Technological University made available open source drawings and software
which cost around a couple of thousand dollars. In 2014 Australian Aurora Labs launched
a Kickstarter campaign for its low-cost (under 4000 USD) metal printer.
