METALWORM produces a commercial metal WAAM 3D printer.
The company, based in Ankara, has been operating since 2015, and was a spin off from a large, 170 person welding company that sought to enter the additive manufacturing market. Their first machine was released in 2017, and today they offer two types of systems.
One system is the “compact” version, which has a build volume ranging from 700mm diameter x 700mm tall to 1000 x 500 x 700 mm. There are several configurations of this model available with different industrial robots offered.
The company also offers a “special” system configuration that is a custom combination of components and features that can be selected from a rather long list.
All of these systems use the WAAM (wire arc additive manufacturing) process. This involves feeding a metal welding wire through to a robotically-mounted toolhead, where a high power electrical arc instantly melts the material for deposition.
During deposition, a “shielding gas” is jetted around the nozzle to contain the meltpool as it cools and solidifies. METALWORM labels this as GMAW-AM, “Gas Metal Arc Welding – Additive Manufacturing”.
They also offer GTAW-AM, “Gas Tungsten Arc Welding – Additive Manufacturing”, where a non-consumable tungsten cathode is used to produce the electric arc. They also can use a plasma process and wire-laser approach, illustrating the flexibility of their platform.
There is one intriguing feature: a cooling table. The prints are produced on a table that is actively cooled. This soaks up heat that would others remain in the print and possibly generate distortions.
It’s possible to quickly print large metal objects in a wide variety of materials. This example shows the somewhat coarse resolution provided by the equipment. However, the image also shows that it is possible to CNC mill required surfaces to a smooth finish. CNC milling is one of the options that can be added to METALWORM systems.
I spoke to company representatives and was told that they are doing quite well lately, and for an unusual reason: currency exchange.
Based in Türkiye, they can take advantage of that country’s ongoing currency weakness. This can make METALWORM systems up to 30% less expensive than similar systems when purchased from outside Türkiye.
The METALWORM system seems quite flexible and available at relatively low pricing, and this should be of interest to industry.
Via METALWORM
