(20th August 2020, Huddersfield, U.K.) Marking a major milestone, Wayland Additive is delighted to announce that it will be commercially launching its first production system — Calibur 3 — on the 27th January 2021. The company expects to start shipping later the same year.
Developed in house, from the ground up, the NeuBeam metal AM process eliminates many of the compromises that users of metal AM processes have to make both for part development and into full production. As such, NeuBeam overcomes the inherent instabilities of traditional eBeam processes and the internal residual stresses typically associated with laser powder bed fusion (PBF) processes to offer a truly stable and flexible process. In addition, NeuBeam exhibits unrivalled metallurgy capabilities and can process a much wider range of metal materials, including reflective and refractive metals.
Designed specifically for production applications, the Calibur 3 incorporates fully embedded in-process monitoring capabilities that provide full oversight during every build and ensures full traceability for every part.
Peter Hansford, Director of Business Development at Wayland Additive, commented: “We are very happy to confirm the launch date for the Calibur 3 On 27th January next year we will be unveiling the full specs of the machine to our early adopters and partners as well as to the press at a dedicated event. Currently the plan is to bring people in to see it in action for themselves if we are able to with Covid 19 restrictions, but we will also be live-streaming the event for interested parties that may not be able to attend. 2020 has been an unprecedented year in many ways and the global pandemic has caused a great deal of disruption and uncertainty. At Wayland, however, we have been able to navigate through these difficulties and keep our focus on the development of our system. Talking to industrial users of metal AM throughout, it is clear that despite the disruptions, many companies are still making medium and long-term plans, and we look forward to serving them with our ground-breaking technology.”
Unlike the traditional eBeam PBF process, the charging issues that make EBM so unstable have been fully neutralized with NeuBeam using core physics principles developed in the demanding semi-conductor industry. Moreover, NeuBeam is a hot “part” process rather than a hot “bed” process. This efficiently creates parts that are free of residual stresses because the high temperatures are only applied to the part and not the bed, ensuring free-flowing powder post-build (no sinter cake) and stress-free parts with reduced energy consumption.
The NeuBeam process is capable of producing fully dense parts in a wide range of materials, many of which are not compatible with traditional eBeam or laser PBF processes such as refractory metals and highly reflective alloys. As a result, the process can demonstrate vastly improved metallurgy, without many of the compromises that existing metal AM processes necessitate.
Will Richardson, CEO at Wayland Additive concludes, “Save the date in your diary now. We are in the process of curating an impressive in-person and on-line event which will be of huge interest to industrial sectors that use or are planning to use metal AM for production applications. January 27th 2021 will be a pivotal day for Wayland, but also a pivotal day for industry as they get a first clear view of the opportunities that exist through the use of our NeuBeam technology.”
