Arcam AB fka AMAVF

[Tom Joad]

EBM is in no way forge like. HIP = Hot Isostatic Pressing (you knew this I suspect) is closer to forging as both heat and pressure are involved in treating the part. I haven't found research pointing to Ampliforge processes yet, but I'll be amazed if Ampliforge isn't a tweak of HIP which does not change the geometry of the part as it applies pressure evenly on any part, regardless of complexity, by using an inert gas. I cannot imagine using a hammer forge process because any process I can imagine would change geometry. Maybe they've gone to using, say, a liquid metal to apply pressure. Who knows?

Good news in the direction of Alcoa/Carnegie Mellon/3d. Arcam is involved in America Makes. From

CARNEGIE MELLON RESEARCHERS DEVELOP NOVEL TOOLS

"His team is investigating the EOS Laser Sintering process and the Arcam Electron Beam Melting process. Both are powder-based additive manufacturing processes that directly build metal components from metal powders. At present, these two additive manufacturing processes are the most successful at automatically fabricating any 3-D shape of metals."

So far I've found research on eliminating porosity during the build.

"Rollett’s team, in collaboration with Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jack Beuth, recently published a paper in the Journal of Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society, which showed that a majority of the porosity in 3-D printed titanium could be eliminated by making adjustments to the process parameters of the machine. Less porosity means stronger, more reliable end-parts."

- See more at:

Taking a close look at metal 3-D printing