Avio Aero, BeamIt Group, GE Additive Collaborating on Additive Manufacturing Technology

Avio Aero and GE Additive have signed a nonbinding letter of intent outlining a strategic technology collaboration agreement with BeamIt Group, which is partly owned by Sandvik.

BeamIt is collaborating with Avio Aero on technology development and, in particular, the postprocessing of certain additively manufactured (AM) components for the GE9X and the Catalyst engines.

BeamIt is a longstanding GE Additive customer and operates a fleet of Concept Laser and Arcam EBM machines, including the Mlab, M2 and X Line platforms, as well as two Q10plus machines across its subsidiaries — Pres-X and Zare — serving customers in multiple industries, including aerospace, defense and medical.

The intention is for GE Additive and BeamIt to cooperate on a number of strategic projects, such as special postprocessing machinery and technologies as well as materials, to meet long-term production needs.

GE Additive would become BeamIt’s strategic equipment supplier, as it continues to scale its operations and enhances its existing facilities to meet long-term production needs.

The agreement includes collaboration and assessment on postprocessing technologies for the specific requirements of certain GE9X and Catalyst engine components, such as MRI and tomographic inspection, HIP and machining equipment. BeamIt would contribute to the reduction of the lead times necessary to build components, including machining and testing processes, and it would also support new modalities under development at Avio Aero with super-cleaning and super-finishing surfaces.

BeamIt would also support in the development of GE Additive’s Concept Laser M Line Factory system. The M Line is a highly advanced, industrialized production system that is best-suited to experienced metal additive users who have already started to scale production volumes, the company says. M Line’s stitching capability is said to enable customers with large part size demand to increase productivity and drive cost down for additive production.