Replies to post #3753 on Arcam AB fka AMAVF

[Tom Joad]

... and only Arcam and EOS are mentioned in the link you supplied.

It's monumental whenever a university has an increase in faculty from 1 to 20 in four years for any subject area, in this case Carnegie Mellon and metal 3d printing. Carnegie Mellon, for those that don't know, has some stature in the world of engineering. That their faculty are confident that they'll unlock a process to generate "point by point" microstructure in a build is stunning. I don't know how much of this will get to Arcam and increase their technology moat but they're using their equipment to explore this.

Thanks "... 123."

[mauser96]

that Jack Beuth link has the information that maintenance on an EBM machine is about $40,000 per year,
plus the training costs of operators.

. And that if a company bought a machine today it would take them 6 to 12 months to get their first up to spec parts.

So there is a substantial learning curve.

The work being done at CMU should reduce this curve and make results more predictable in advance.

The talk also points out that more than one reliable source of Ti powder is needed before many companies are willing to additive manufacturing
I wonder if Arcam should be like Tesla and open up any patents on powder technology. There are pros and cons of this but it is hard to sell razors if customers believe they can't trust the supply of razor blades.