Meltio, a wire-laser metal deposition systems manufacturer, has introduced a new industrial metal 3D printer – the M600 – designed to solve for long lead times, costly stock-keeping, and increasingly fragile supply chains. This new system increases productivity and reduces manufacturing costs, brings new materials to the table, and can perform 24/7 with minimal operator interaction for autonomous production.
“The design brief for the new Meltio M600 was to imagine what the perfect 3D printer for the machine shop would look like. The vast majority of metal 3D printed parts require post-processing which is carried out in the machine shop and since our ambition is to push the large-scale adoption of metal additive manufacturing we have a very clear vision that the modern machine shop is the ideal point of entry. Manufacturing faces many challenges globally, from long lead times and stock-keeping costs caused by long and fragile supply chains to an ever-growing pressure to lower costs and reduce emissions,” said Lukas Hoppe, Research and Development Director at Meltio. “3D printing has huge potential to address these issues as it helps reduce lead times, and manufacturing dependencies by printing parts in-house, reduces warehouse inventory as the raw material can be transformed into the final part on demand, and reduces costs by applying material only where it is needed.”
Features
The M600 uses welding wire as its feedstock – a material that is much cheaper, safer to handle, and does not risk contamination of CNC machines in the vicinity (compared to powder feedstocks). The system also produces high-quality components with material properties that are comparable to conventionally manufactured parts.
Meltio’s newly developed Blue Laser deposition head increases printing speed while reducing energy consumption thanks to the increased absorption of the short wavelength light compared to most industrial lasers which emit near-infrared light. This advantage is multiplied for reflective materials such as copper and aluminum alloys where near-infrared lasers lead to unsatisfactory results. Combining this with the fully inert workspace, the Meltio M600 can process a large range of materials efficiently while producing parts with exceptional properties.
The complete system has been designed to easily interface in the same industrial environment with CNC machines – featuring a built-in 3-axis touch probe and supports various types of workholding solutions which means the operator can also add features to or repair existing parts rather than printing them entirely.
The M600 is highly autonomous, and operator interaction is minimal. Common touch points such as manual laser alignment have been removed for increased reliability, and programming is a matter of minutes thanks to the Meltio Horizon.
The new system also features improved energy distribution and wire guidance such that the deposition head is aligned from the factory and not operator-adjustable – leading to consistent output and vastly reduced maintenance. The head is laden with new and improved sensor solutions for monitoring the printing process, which makes printing more reliable.
“The Meltio M600 for us was really the next logical step on our continuous journey towards mass adoption of Wire-Laser DED, the process all Meltio systems are based on. We began this work in earnest in 2019 when we started to leave the prototyping space with the launch of the Meltio M450. After learning from and improving the technology for three years, the time was finally ripe for us to work on the next system. Our goal with the Meltio M600 was to strike the right balance between machine size, cost, and productivity while being uncompromising on quality, reliability, and ease of use. To achieve this, we did not just create a ‘scaled up’ M450, instead, we developed every single part of the machine from scratch to take the technology to the next level, based on the learnings of having manufactured and installed over 300 Laser DED machines,” said Lukas Hoppe.
