Adira unveils world’s first tiled laser melting metal 3D printer with biggest ever build volume

Big things are happening in the metal 3D printing industry, where hardware is rapidly becoming ready for large volume production. For years, metal 3D printing technology has been seen as ‘not quite there yet’, in part thanks to material, size and build volume restrictions. But these limitations are systematically being dealt with.

Portuguese machine tool manufacturer Adira is now further increasing the appeal of metal 3D printing with the world’s first large-scale Tiled Laser Melting metal 3D printer, which was unveiled at Euroblech 2016. Featuring the biggest ever metal powder processing area, it paves the way for numerous new applications by combining powder bed fusion and direct metal deposition 3D printing technologies, along with sheet metal laser-cutting, in a single machine.

Aidira call it the world’s first large-scale 3D hybrid metal printer. In a nutshell, it combines both powder bed fusion and direct metal deposition 3D printing technologies in a single machine. Their ‘Tiled Laser Melting’ system is essentially a modular production chamber concept featuring the biggest ever metal powder processing area and a system that enables part fabrication beyond the chamber volume. The 3D printer itself features a massive 960 x 960mm powder bed area, with parts being processed in segments of 300 x 300mm. For the direct deposition process, the machine has a processing area of 1 500 x 1 500mm, within the same system.

For further details contact F & H Machine Tools on TEL: 011 397 4050 or visit www.fhmt.co.za