We are a technology-focused business, and we will never stop pushing the limits of this technology.”
These were Sam O’Leary’s closing remarks a little over a year ago as he appeared on the TCT Additive Insight podcast. The SLM Solutions CEO had spent around 20 minutes detailing the capabilities of the company’s Free Float software, hinting at the possibilities the NXG XII 600 metal 3D printing system could afford, and outlining, in no uncertain terms, that there was more to come.
Since then, Morf3D, Divergent Technologies, MAN Energy Solutions, Collins Aerospace, Sintavia, and more have all placed orders of SLM’s 12-laser machine, while optics and imaging giant Nikon has moved to acquire the company. More recently than that, SLM has also secured a contract to do exactly as O’Leary said they would last August: push the limits of metal 3D printing.
In September 2022, just weeks after the Nikon news broke, SLM Solutions announced a bigger, better 12-laser metal additive manufacturing platform was under development. The first installation of its NXG XII 600E will come via a 5.2 million USD US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contract awarded to Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC). This project has been designed to facilitate the additive manufacturing of longer parts for critical defence applications, overcoming the limits of existing powder bed additive equipment. The resulting machine, SLM says, will feature the same ‘lightning fast’ speed and productivity as the standard NXG XII 600, but with the Z-axis extended to 1.5 metres.
Upon the initial announcement, details were scarce. But for a silhouetted graphic distributed on SLM social channels, there were no visuals either. Now, however, the company has publicised the first render of the system, and also revealed it expects to deliver the first unit to CTC in 2023. Additionally, SLM has said that customers who have already installed or ordered the NXG XII 600 have the option to upgrade their system to take advantage of its extended Z build envelope.
SLM Solutions
The standard NXG XII 600E on the left and the build volume-enhanced NXG XII 600E on the right.
With the introduction of the NXG XII 600 series, SLM Solutions believes it is revolutionising metal additive manufacturing. Customers have been demanding the serial production of complex geometries and the faster printing of larger components, and SLM is now working to facilitate them. The NXG XII 600E, the company says, can enable such parts in hours or days instead of weeks and months, thanks to its 12 1KW lasers and 1000cm/hr print speeds.
The NXG XII 600E has been designed to be the most advanced production system on the market today. The solution features an end-to-end production workflow that includes external cool down unpacking to maximize machine uptime. This allows job-to-job turnover to be completed within one hour compared to reported “days” on competing technology. In addition, the NXG platform features SLM Open Architecture allowing maximum flexibility to tailor process parameters to optimise application results with maximum productivity using 90µm layer thickness and beyond in commonly qualified materials that include IN718, AlSi10Mg, TiAl6V4 & copper alloys. Meanwhile, support-free printing with Free Float offers ‘maximum freedom in design,’ and reduces the need for both support structures and post-processing time by up to 90%. SLM.Quality performs efficient and robust quality assurance with documentation, process qualification, and part certification with the ability to generate a quality report in as little as two clicks, fully documenting process data and validating part quality.
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Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.
Driving the development of this new system was the customers’ need to produce larger components made from high-temperature materials that can withstand the extreme performance requirements in the defence, space, and aviation industries. The NXG XII 600 is considered by SLM to be the epitome of a production system in that it is 20x faster than a single-laser system and 5x faster than a quad-laser system, thus driving the lowest possible cost for end-use parts in automotive and energy sectors, in addition to the aforementioned industries.
In CTC and the AFRL, it is one of those aforementioned industries that will benefit first. CTC is an independent applied scientific research and development professional services organisation that works to design, develop, test, prototype and build solutions that ‘safeguard national security and retain US technological advantage.’ Through that endeavour, the company has turned to SLM Solutions and its NXG XII 600E system.
Nine heat exchangers being printed in AlSl10Mg.
“We are pleased to continue our long-term partnership with SLM,” offered Edward J. Sheehan, Jr., CTC President and CEO. “SLM is clearly a leader in the additive manufacturing equipment arena, and we look forward to collaborating and expanding the possibilities of additive manufacturing for defence applications in this exciting opportunity in support of critical AFRL mission requirements.”
Concurrent Technologies has been utilising SLM technology for many years, purchasing an SLM 280HL 3D printer in 2017 as part of a 1.2m USD investment in additive manufacturing equipment. The acquisition of the 280HL machine was made after ‘an extensive research process’; leveraged to produce parts in aluminium, titanium, and stainless steel; and has clearly made an impression.
So much so, when CTC had a request for larger critical defence applications from the AFRL, SLM Solutions was top of mind. CTC is already successfully deploying its technology, and through that dynamic, has seen a company unwilling to let up when it comes to innovation. With a familiar turn of phrase, O’Leary sums up why relationships like this are key.
“We are especially pleased to be teamed with CTC, a highly regarded premier research and development organisation with an outstanding record of securing technology transition successes,” he finished. “These are the partnerships that are a testament to SLM Solutions’ ethos; it is only in close collaboration with them that we can push the limits of innovation.”
This article was first published in TCT Magazine Europe Volume 30, Issue 6. Hard copies of the magazine will be available at the TCT Group stand at Formnext - Hall 12.0, E42.
