SLM Solutions
Canvas Category Machinery : Additive Manufacturing : 3D Printer
Nikon SLM Solutions AG is a global provider of integrated metal additive manufacturing solutions. Leading the industry since its inception, it continues to drive the future of metal AM in every major industry with its customers’ long-term success at its core. Nikon SLM Solutions is home to the world’s fastest metal additive manufacturing machines boasting up to 12 lasers and enabling build rates of up to 1000ccm/h. With a portfolio of systems to suit every customer’s needs, along with its team of experts closely collaborating at every stage of the process, Nikon SLM Solutions leads the way on return on investment with maximum efficiency, productivity, and profitability. Nikon SLM Solutions believes that additive manufacturing is the future of manufacturing and has the desire and capability to take its customers there – right now. As an inventor of the selective laser melting process, our company focuses on the development and distribution of the most innovative, production-oriented metal additive manufacturing systems. Our focus is to be a leader in product performance and innovation and for you, as our customer, to benefit from that approach.
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Bringing additive manufacturing into focus at Nikon
Nikon’s DNA is rooted in manufacturing and precision technology. I spent over 30 years of my career in semiconductor lithography, which involves some of the most complex machines in the world. Every two years, these machines must be updated to enable Moore’s Law, which drives semiconductor innovation. Given Nikon’s success in this area, we began considering the next stage of manufacturing, which we believe is digital manufacturing.
We identified additive manufacturing as a crucial component of this shift because it allows simpler, monolithic production of complex parts, replacing traditional methods like casting and forging. It offers benefits like weight reduction, lead time reduction and waste reduction.
Nikon’s involvement began organically with the development of direct energy deposition technology, which led to our initial foray into digital manufacturing. However, we soon realized that more growth was necessary, particularly in terms of adoption rates, which were still low. Only about 2% of metal parts that could be manufactured using additive manufacturing are actually being made that way.
We also realized that the industry needed the backing of a strong company with deep technology and manufacturing expertise, as well as stability. This led to our acquisition of SLM Solutions in July 2022, which I led. We integrated our technologies with SLM’s R&D and established the Advanced Manufacturing Business Unit, with its global headquarters in California. This unit aims to make digital manufacturing a pillar of growth for Nikon, in line with our Vision 2030 strategy, which envisions Nikon as a global company enabling seamless collaboration between humans and machines.
Squeeze out registered with the Company register. Name changed to Nikon SLM Solutions AG
Nikon SLM Solutions AG (formerly “SLM Solutions Group AG” and in the following, the “Company”) was informed on September 1, 2023, that the resolution to transfer the shares of the minority shareholders to Nikon AM. AG as the main shareholder 3 has been registered, and thus became effective today. Concurrently, the merger of the Company with Nikon AM. AG (in the future operating under “Nikon SLM Solutions AG”), has been registered and thus also became effective today.
SLM Solutions Announces Strategic Channel Partnership with Walter Meier in Switzerland
This new partnership aims to leverage the innovative potential of additive manufacturing, further broadening the horizons of parts production within Switzerland’s robust manufacturing sector. Walter Meier’s extensive experience in the industry, coupled with SLM Solutions’ cutting-edge 3D printing technology, will unlock new applications and design possibilities across a range of sectors, including watchmaking, medical technology, aerospace, mechanical engineering, and the automotive industry.
🖨️ SLM Solutions and Assembrix: Pioneering Secure Remote Printing and Forging Ahead in Their Collaborative Journey
SLM Solutions, a trailblazer in additive manufacturing technology, and Assembrix, a leading provider of 3D printing software, celebrate remarkable progress in secure remote printing. Building upon the successful integration of Assembrix VMS™ software into SLM Solutions’ machines, both companies are now embarking on the next phase to ensure enhanced safety and full protection of customers’ intellectual property (IP). This is made possible through the utilization of state-of-the-art blockchain and encryption technologies. Together, they are committed to further strengthening their integrated solution, aiming for industrial-scale availability. Notably, Nanyang Polytechnic’s Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre has already embraced this technology, allowing learners to gain hands-on experience developing innovative solutions for the industry.
Digitise and dematerialise: Divergent CEO Kevin Czinger on supplying automotive structures to the world's biggest brands
The manufacture of lithium-ion phosphate battery cells at Coda’s facility in China relies heavily on coal-fired power. And because of that, ‘well over’ 200 kilogrammes (kg) of Co2 per kilowatt hour (kWh) is being produced in battery manufacture. At this time, kg of Co2 per kWh is the most important metric on Czinger’s mind and the cogs whirring in his head only intensify as he does the workings out to reveal that these batteries and EVs aren’t having enough impact.
Post Coda, Czinger educated himself on lifecycle assessments, figuring only a holistic approach would return the energy emission reduction that is required in an era of climate emergency. He also came to realise that the way automotive structures are manufactured, and the costs required to do so, need optimising – particularly as EVs, hybrid cars and internal combustion engine vehicles (and all the tooling and fixturing to come with them) continue to emerge. “The amortisation period, the competition, the driving down of values, you’re looking and saying, ‘this is environmentally and economically broken,’” Czinger says.
Czinger and his team developed the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS) to ‘digitise and dematerialise’ automotive production and provide the technical competency for the company, in time, to become a Tier One supplier to the automotive industry. What Divergent is willing to talk about, however, is how its DAPS workflow works. Its engineers start by understanding the static stiffness targets of a structure, then the typical load cases it will be exposed to, then what its boundary conditions are, then its crash requirements, durability requirements and dynamic stiffness response requirements. This information is the input for the Divergent design algorithm, which is where the company enters the concept phase. Here, Divergent gives the OEM ‘optionality’ to, for example, reduce stiffness in a certain area of the structure to reduce mass. After the concept phase comes the detailed design phase, and after that, it’s time to print the part.
Dyndrite and SLM Solutions set to cooperate on full support for SLM Solutions metal 3D printing machines
Dyndrite has announced a collaboration with SLM Solutions to support the SLM file format within Dyndrite’s Application Development Kit (ADK). SLM says that through Dyndrite, its customers will be able to design parameters based on unique aspects, or their unique needs, developing new IP, protecting any know-how, and gaining competitive advantage.
Dyndrite’s ADK provides GPU-powered 3D CAD-to-print software development. The company also provides the software power for generating toolpaths and rasterizing 3D data for additive manufacturing processes, including photopolymers and laser powder bed. Also, through an integrated Python API, the company says it brings full automation of CAD-to-print data workflows at a speed that can meet challenging data requirements.
Impeller Design & Optimization for Additive Manufacturing
Wärtsilä’s engineers redesigned the centrifugal pump impeller for additive manufacturing. Not only was the optimized turbomachinery component 44% lighter, but it was generated using an automated design process, enabling customization.
For this collaborative project, engineers from Wärtsilä’s additive manufacturing center in Finland joined forces with nTopology, SLM Solutions, and Oqton to create a digital workflow based on advanced engineering design and additive manufacturing technologies. The primary aim of this project was to replace the traditionally cast impeller.
SLM and Nikon enter into Investment Agreement – Nikon to launch public takeover offer for SLM
SLM Solutions Group AG (“SLM Solutions”, “SLM” or the “Company”) and Nikon Corporation (“Nikon”) have entered into an Investment Agreement in relation to a voluntary public takeover offer that Nikon intends to launch for all outstanding shares of SLM at a cash consideration of EUR 20 per share.
With SLM becoming part of Nikon’s digital manufacturing strategy, SLM management is convinced this transaction will further enhance SLM’s ability to stay at the forefront of metal Additive Manufacturing and enhance its leadership position in delivering superior products and solutions to its customers.
Divergent Secures Up to $80M in New Financing for 3D Printed Car Operations
3D printed supercar startup Divergent Technologies announced that it has successfully completed two new financing agreements, for a total of up to $80 million. This follows the Southern California-based company’s $160 million Series C investment round, announced in April of this year.
This signals financial faith being shown not just in the AM sector, but, more broadly, in the technology’s ability to deliver wholly automated production lines. That has significance far beyond its implications for one company, as it is precisely what AM will have to display it can achieve, in order for the industry to scale up to the point where it is capable of handling mass production.