SLM Divergent
Divergent 3D is to purchase five pre-production SLM Solutions metal additive manufacturing machines after signing a letter of intent.
The companies announced the extension of their partnership, which began in 2017, at Formnext 2019.
Through this developing alliance between the two organisations, Divergent will use the machines for factory integration and system bulletproofing at its showcase facility in Los Angeles, California. It is believed the integration of these ‘next-generation’ machines will go some way to helping Divergent meet the production demand for a number of major global carmaker programmes.
The company projects at least 20 of these platforms will be required for its initial factory deployment with plans to begin series production of safety-critical structures for European and North American OEM customers set to commence next year. A customer roll-out of advanced manufacturing facilities is to follow.
“Alignment between the two companies across machines, software and materials will drive a step change from standalone AM machines to fully integrated smart factories,” commented Kevin Czinger, the founder and CEO of Divergent who was also appointed to the SLM Solutions Supervisory Board in June.
“The next generation machine resulting from this partnership achieves cost productivity enabling the broad use of metal additive manufacturing for true series production,” added Meddah Hadjar, CEO of SLM Solutions.
At Formnext, SLM Solutions is demonstrating a front quarter-section of Divergent’s fully functional and crashworthy hypercar that features a metal 3D printed chassis structure. The metal additive manufacturing vendor has also presented generatively engineered and lightweight suspension and chassis components, which were produced on SLM’s 800, 500 and 280 platforms. The company is exhibiting in Hall 12.0 Stand E03 at Formnext.
