ArcelorMittal and Additive Industries Tackle Large Spare Part Printing for Steel Industry

ArcelorMittal and Additive Industries joined forces to focus on 3D metal printing for the steel industry using a large 4-laser 3D metal printing system: the MetalFAB1. 3D printing of spare parts ioffers on-demand, on-location production; it also shortens the production cycle and enables flexibility to ArcelorMittal plants. Since the installation of the first metal 3D printer in ArcelorMittal R&D facilities, several 3D-printed spare parts have already been used while others are still running in ArcelorMittal facilities.

The MetalFAB1 is a metal printer that has automated the manual steps of conventional powder bed fusion (PBF) printers. Its build volume (420x420x400 mm) enables the production of large steel spare parts for steelmaking or mining operations. The system is designed to be the safest on the market, contributing to ArcelorMittal’s focus on operator safety as well as environmental goals since the system recycles all material and generates hardly any production waste.

“We are proud to work together with ArcelorMittal, jointly driving the business case for 3D-printed parts in the steel industry," says Harry Kleijnen, key account manager Additive Industries. "ArcelorMittal’s typical applications have enabled us to further adapt the MetalFAB1 system to print high density, high volume parts. We are looking forward to expanding the range of applications and materials in this intense and strong collaboration.” 

“Innovation and market leader ArcelorMittal have helped us to stress-test our MetalFAB1 system for critical spare-part production," says Daan A.J. Kersten, co-founder and CEO Additive Industries. "This enabled us to expand our experience to the steel industry from our main application markets in aerospace and automotive. It has become clear that metal 3D printing is a serious alternative for a large variety of cast parts.”

“Additive manufacturing is an exponential technology, moving very fast," says Jose López Fresno, head of the Additive Manufacturing department, ArcelorMittal Global R&D in Avilés (Spain). "Our collaboration with Additive Industries is a clear demonstration of our ability to remain at the cutting-edge of this technology: we started by printing small specimens and have now progressed to large size and complex parts.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.