Arcam AB fka AMAVF

[Tom Joad]

38 reasons why GE bought into Arcam and Concept Laser. In the link below, replace SLM Solutions with Concept Laser.

Some of the reasons not discussed or rarely discussed with key words to use in searches. I was not aware of the "high" error rate when using additive manufacturing, however, when the standard is "six sigma" that error rate may not be that high, just high in comparison.

The article makes clear that by bringing all of this in-house, GE can develop a culture of additive manufacturing that's conducive to industrialization.

38 reasons, why GE invested in 3D

- Spare parts for aircraft could be printed out on demand (or with intelligent planning) worldwide locally rather than shipped.

- GE can therefore focus its manufacturing risk and eliminate errors by concentrating its manufacturing risk on the Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing process.

- New developments such as gradient metals (whereby the hardness of a metal can vary throughout the part for example) will make new designs possible.

- Things such as the optimization of internal topology mean that leaps forward could be made with the technology. With 3D printing for example you could apply a texture to the inside of a combustion chamber to make it more efficient.

- Dual purpose parts can be made with 3D printing, so your bolt could be optimized to be a heat sink for example. Comment: I'll add, "n-purpost parts." Why can't a part can serve more than 2 or 3 purposes?

- They need to be able to control their entire supply chain in order to ensure that the LEAP nozzle and other new 3D printed products are launched well.

- The 3D printing market is growing by approximately 30% per year in revenue.

- Effectively if Arcam went bust GE would not be able to indefinitely continue printing out the parts for its aircraft. Since it may need to have spare parts on hand for two decades or more, in the case of 3D printing metal, it would have been too high a risk for them to rely on an outside vendor. Arcam or SLM’s demise would mean that GE could eventually not service its own engines.

- A complete industrialization process ending up in certified civil aviation parts is expensive and locks one even deeper into vendor relationships in 3D printing. Powder supply for example would have to be assured since any variability in this would have a high impact on the end use parts.

- More control gives GE not only more 3D printing knowledge but additionally also more room to tackle error rates in production.
When compared to many other processes 3D printing error rates are very high. By taking the entire process in house and industrializing two technologies GE can using its SixSixma and manufacturing experience drive down error rates significantly. This can give the company a comparative advantage in aerospace manufacturing in both cost and capability.

- Along with Additive Industries, Concept and EOS both SLM and Arcam are the furthest along in automating their 3D printing and post processing.

- Arcam EBM is quicker than competing technologies in terms of the part build rate (depending on the part and the requirements post processing could be much longer than this).

- Arcam EBM has demonstrable lower internal stresses in its parts than competing technologies.

- While DMLS has smoother surfaces and so (typically) requires less machining, EBM parts (typically) require less support structures which reduces labor cost in builds (again to a certain extent and this is dependent on part geometry).

- Their purchase now of both these companies puts other aircraft engine manufacturers in a tough spot. In my opinion other aero engine suppliers have to purchase a DMLS company of their own for fear of falling behind GE or not being given access to the technology.

- If GE were to take the Arcam and SLM machines off the market (as they did with Morris’ 3D printing service capacity, reducing global metal 3D printing capacity by around a quarter) the company would have the orthopedics and aerospace industries by the throat.
Comment: We knew that already, right?