Replies to post #4299 on Arcam AB fka AMAVF

[Tom Joad]

Excellent overview of powder EBM's advantages but I'll have to review completely on another day. One clear advantage (this has been mentioned before but the paper describes it so well) is that magnetic lenses can nearly instantaneously change the EB location on the powder bed, keep several melt/fuse sites working at the same time with one beam, and carefully adjust heating and cooling to determine metal grain growth. That cannot occur with laser melting at this level, at least when working with one laser. Laser beams are directed by mechanical means using mirrors instead of electrical means using magnets so moving the laser beam to another location is inherently slower, maybe on the order of milliseconds, but milliseconds matter.

Thank you Charlie.

[flying_trader]

Will Arcam always be niche player ?

I am coming to that pov... we Charle's paper seems to support the proposition it is best suited to high performance metals that are electrically conductive...how big is that market? It just may be that Arcam belongs in the stable of a much larger company that spans all the needs of the manufacturer... think DDD...

We shall see but they need to start selling more than 3 machines a month if they are going to be a stand alone company...

Cheers