It might have little over 20 3D printers installed around the world, but materials, engineering and tooling company Sandvik has seen enough in BeamIT’s AM technology to purchase a ‘significant stake’ in the Italian company.
Sandvik’s ambition to become a leading solution provider for the wider component manufacturing industry has led it to further its position in additive manufacturing, which given its metals machining and materials knowledge makes a lot of sense – having earlier this year integrated its Powder division into the Additive Manufacturing division, to offer an end-to-end service.
A key marker for why Sandvik has chosen to take a stake in privately held BeamIT, with an option to increase it over time, might be found in the number of relevant quality certifications, including AS 9100 for aerospace and NADCAP approval, which provides easy inroads into several high value verticals.
“The AM sector is developing fast and there is a need for AM-specialist-partners with the advanced skills and resources required to help industrial customers develop and launch their AM programs,” said says Sandvik Additive Manufacturing president Kristian Egeberg, adding that the investment would give its customers access to the “complementary and combined power of Sandvik and Beam IT”.
Mauro Antolotti, Chairman and founder of Beam IT, said: “The demand for additively manufactured components is expected to grow rapidly the coming years. In Sandvik, we have a very good owner who can help us accelerate the growth – and who can provide us with leading materials expertise, development of high-quality metal powder suited for all AM processes, as well as world-leading post-processing know-how”.
Sandvik has been making made sizeable investments into a wide range of AM process technologies for metal components since 2013, including Powder Bed Fusion (Laser and Electron Beam) and Binder Jetting.
