At last year’s Formnext exhibition, the Calibur3 metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology from Wayland Additive had just been launched commercially. With the focus today on the 2022 edition of the event, the first sales of the Calibur3 system have now been made. Machines are shipping across the world as companies invest in a metal AM solution that allows the manufacture of geometrically complex, fully dense, high quality parts in a wide variety of difficult to process metals.
Will Richardson, CEO at Wayland says, “As we gear up for Formnext 2022, and once again have the opportunity to discuss our Calibur3 technology with the cream of the additive manufacturing (AM) community, it is humbling to realise just what the Wayland team has achieved. Wayland was founded in August 2019 as a small R&D facility employing 15 people, and from this standing start (and despite the worst excesses of the COVID pandemic and its contingent effect on business) within three years we have proved our new technology, are shipping finished machines, employ 48 people, and operate out of 4 buildings. What this demonstrates absolutely is the dedication, tenacity, and expertise inherent in the Wayland team that drives our innovation. Our order book is filling up rapidly, and it is obvious that we are fulfilling a need throughout industry for a metal AM technology that truly disrupts the traditional manufacturing paradigm, especially for high wear parts and components in the aerospace, medical, energy and power generation, motorsport and automotive, mining and mineral extraction, and military and defence sectors. We invite everyone with an interest in next generation metal AM to come and see us on our larger stand at Formnext 2022 (B139 in Hall 12) to look inside our machine, see the parts that we can produce and discuss opportunities.”
Central to Wayland Additive’s success is that it has adopted a thoughtful approach to the Calibur3 system, its primary focus being to solve common problems with metal AM. Calibur3 uses the NeuBeam® process which delivers on all of the advantages of metal electron beam (eBeam) powder bed fusion (PBF) technology, while overcoming the troublesome issues that have traditionally limited wider adoption.
The most fundamental issue with eBeam AM technology has always been the unstable nature of the process, and Wayland has categorically resolved this. The Wayland team comprises decades of experience with eBeam research, development, and implementation in the semi-conductor industry. This has allowed them to address and solve the charging issues that have, until now, restricted EBM processes, with the fully neutralized NeuBeam process.
Peter Hansford, Business Development Director at Wayland Additive says, “Calibur3 is the complete package. Not only does it overcome many of the problems associated with traditional eBeam processes, but it offers a complete and well thought out solution. This includes the design of the machine, its modularity and user interface, ease-of-use, and the fact that a De-powdering and Recycling (DPR) station is all included in the Calibur3 package. This means that an investment in the Calibur3 system ensures that customers have an end-to-end solution with no need to consider purchasing ancillaries for post processing etc… With all this in mind, the demand for the Calibur3 is robust as we approach Formnext, and we would advise customers that early engagement is worthwhile as our earliest pre-sale process validation opportunities are fully booked until January 2023.”
Despite high demand and industry-wide supply chain issues, Wayland Additive is pleased to say that it has maintained a 20-week delivery window from time of order to delivery. The complete focus of the company is to ensure that all mitigations are in place to address any contingencies that may affect this delivery time and to ensure the maximum delivery time is held at 20 weeks.
Richardson concludes, “The truly disruptive nature of Calibur3 is such that we immediately fulfil needs across a range of industries and applications. We spend no time navel gazing at Wayland, and all our time is spent pragmatically demonstrating to customers the value of investing in our technology. We look forward to meeting all interested parties at Formnext as we continue to expand our reach across industry.”
