Beamit Invests in M Line System

BeamIt Group, partly owned by Sandvik, is investing in a GE Additive Concept Laser M Line system to meet growing demand from its aerospace and defense customers for both large-format metal 3D printed components and assistance in industrializing additive production.

This investment comes after Avio Aero, BeamIt and GE Additive signed a letter of intent regarding a strategic technology collaboration. BeamIt is a longstanding customer of GE Additive 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 three manufacturing plants and its subsidiary Pres-X.

“As part of our ‘one-stop shop’ strategy, we have continued to invest in our value chain over the past seven years and have also achieved rigorous ISO 9001, AS 9100 quality certifications and NADCAP accreditation needed to service the aerospace sector,” says Mauro Antolotti, president of BeamIt. “That investment has not gone unnoticed and we continue to attract new aerospace, space and defense customers, while supporting existing customers who have already commenced their additive journey.”

Growing demand was motivation for BeamIt to invest in its first M Line system. The rise in demand for larger parts the company is experiencing is replicated across the commercial aerospace, space and defense sectors globally. 

Additive users across the aerospace supply chain continue to invest in innovation and continue to set the bar high for the deployment of increasingly mature metal additive applications. The progression in terms of complexity and volume is a reflection of the evolution of in-house additive teams, one-stop shop companies like BeamIt with an end-to-end approach, and the wider aerospace additive ecosystem, the company says.

The latest phase of industrialization at BeamIt builds on the success in deploying metal additive across the aerospace industry, where users are intended to be able to demonstrate return-on-investment and are now able to make a tangible business case for scaling their additive operations.

“For some time, our common objective with BeamIt has been to work closely together to enable its customers to make the shift to industrialization as seamless as possible. We feel now quite proud that this becomes a reality,” says Rob Dean, GE Additive’s AddWorks senior leader in Europe.

Once installed at its facility in Italy, the BeamIt team will push the utilization of M Line to its full potential in terms of quality, productivity and driving cost out for additive production, also with the support of GE Additive’s AddWorks consultants.

The M Line is designed for high-quality, high-throughput scenarios, so it lends itself well to highly regulated industries, such as the aerospace and medical sectors, the company says. While it is said to be intuitive and easy to operate, BeamIt reports the M Line is also an advanced, industrialized production system that is well suited for customers who have experienced metal additive users for many years and have already started to scale production volumes.