Velo3D
Velo3D's Sapphire System
Lockheed Martin has installed a Velo3D Sapphire metal 3D printing system at its Additive Design & Manufacturing Center.
This facility is used by Lockheed to pilot new additive manufacturing technologies for production deployments in the company’s space division. Lockheed Martin has been open in the past about its application of polymer 3D printing technology from the likes of Stratasys and MakerBot, and has now revealed its adoption of metal technology from Velo3D.
Velo3D says its advanced quality assurance capabilities enabled by its Assure software are what has attracted Lockheed to invest in the Sapphire machine. Assure provides layer-by-layer traceability of machine health, part integrity and build reporting, which Velo believes will give Lockheed confidence that parts printed with the technology preserve design intent.
The solution delivered to Lockheed includes the Sapphire hardware and Assure quality assurance capabilities, as well as the Flow print preparation software and its underlying Intelligent Fusion manufacturing process which optimises the additive manufacturing process by combining process simulation, geometry-based detection and build process monitoring during print execution.
“The past few years have uncovered weaknesses in the global supply chain, which is causing many companies to evaluate new technologies to feed production of their mission-critical parts and hardware, and distribute their manufacturing processes,” commented Velo3D CEO Benny Buller. “An additive manufacturing solution that can print identical parts anywhere you have a printer can not only help solve some very specific, complex challenges in our global supply chain, it can also lower production costs and lead times, and enable the manufacturing of parts in closer proximity to where they are needed.”
