M 8K metal printing system

Additive Manufacturing Customized Machines (AMCM)’s M 4K currently offers a build envelope of 450mm x 450mm x 1,000mm and supports four 1kW lasers while the larger M 8K will be equipped with 8 lasers and feature a 800mm x 800mm x 1,200mm build volume.

Development of the M 8K is supported by a national grant to AMCM to improve the competitiveness of the Ariane 6 program. The first application will be printing the combustion chamber of the Ariane Group’s Prometheus rocket engine. Printed in CuCrZr with a height of >1,000mm and a maximum diameter of 800mm, the combustion chamber will be a benchmark in terms of dimensions and quality.

With larger parts and longer print runs, process control and validation become increasingly important. However, X-ray computed tomography (CT) is still a common method for checking structural integrity of additively manufactured (AM) parts. With SmartFusion and EOSTATE Exposure OT (optical tomography), AMCM will integrate the latest technology from EOS Group into the M 8K system to further improve in-process quality assurance and process monitoring, helping reduce subsequent testing effort.