VELO3D’s First Meter-Tall 3D Metal Printer Sold to Knust-Godwin
The next-generation Sapphire machine will print up to 1 meter in height, making it the tallest laser-powder additive manufacturing system. It’ll debut its patented SupportFree process in the creation of industrial parts in the oil and gas industry.
Posted: May 11, 2020
VELO3D (Campbell, CA) plans to make its next-generation Sapphire industrial 3D metal printer commercially available in the fourth quarter of 2020 – meanwhile, precision-tool and component manufacturer Knust-Godwin has secured the first order for the purpose of producing parts for an oil and gas application.
“Our vision at VELO3D is to enable end users to build whatever they want without the constraints of yesterday’s standards,” states Benny Buller, founder and CEO of VELO3D. “One of those constraints is the build envelope. A meter-tall system enables industrial applications that couldn’t be built before, especially for oilfield service tools and flight hardware. Best of all, it will still utilize our highly patented SupportFree process, in-situ calibration, and process control for quality assurance.”
The immediate part opportunity that Knust-Godwin will address with the Sapphire printer is a part for oilfield drilling that is currently manufactured by more than five subtractive processes. Additive manufacturing enables consolidation of such traditional processes, improving part quality and part performance.
“There tends to be a trade-off between large-format additive machines and part quality; VELO3D is attractive to us because of their semiconductor heritage and engineering disciplines around process control and metrology,” states Mike Corliss, vice president of Technology at Knust-Godwin. “We have confidence that we’ll be able to build mission-critical industrial parts without compromises made to part quality.”
The technical features of the meter-tall Sapphire printer include a 315mm-diameter build plate, dual 1kW lasers, in-situ optical calibration, and many of the same characteristics of the existing Sapphire machine. VELO3D says it will be the world’s tallest production metal-powder laser additive manufacturing system, exceeding the build height of both the SLM 800 and the GE Additive X Line 2000R.
