3D Printing Buyer’s Guide
October 7, 2023Advantages of Meltio
October 13, 2023
Meltio takes metal additive manufacturing to the next level by developing high-performance, affordable, and easy-to-use metal 3D printing solutions using wire LMD technology. The company’s mission is to delight customers, partners, and employees by pioneering the development of affordable metal 3D printing systems that are reliable, safe, and powerful, continually reinforcing their status as disruptors. Meltio, based in Linares (Spain) develops and fabricates high-quality disruptive products aimed at industrial high-profile end customers and R&D organizations, such as universities and research-oriented companies. The current portfolio of metal solutions includes the Meltio M450 metal 3D printer and the Meltio Engine Integration, a 3D printing module that turns almost any CNC, robotic arm, or gantry system into a powerful hybrid manufacturing center. Both systems share the same own, patented LMD-based process capable of manufacturing parts both with wire and powder simultaneously with the same printhead.
Meltio’s Goal
Meltio aims to shake up 3D printing. Their goal is to make customers, partners, and employees happy by making metal additive manufacturing more practical and accessible for all kinds of advanced manufacturing solutions.
Meltio’s Products
Meltio has four different metal 3D printing solutions for use with varying manufacturing needs. Their printers let factories use metal 3D printing instead of older methods. Their primary products are the Meltio M450 3D printer and the Meltio Engine that can be integrated into a CNC machine.
The Meltio M450 metal 3D Printer:
A self-contained metal 3D printer. It uses laser metal deposition technology to create metal parts.
Purpose
Good for making metal parts that don’t need a lot of post processing.
Features
Makes parts close to their final shape; so less waste and finishing is needed. A metal 3D printing process that is great for complex geometries.
The Meltio Engine CNC Integration
Purpose
The Meltio engine was made to combine CNC machines with the metal deposition process. The combination of additive manufacturing with subtractive manufacturing is called hybrid manufacturing. This combination is great for repairs and adding features to metal parts.
Features
Works with CNC machines for versatile hybrid manufacturing. Good for repair and modification of existing parts.
The Meltio Engine Robot Integration
Meltio’s laser metal 3D printing technology can be integrated with a robotic arm. This is great for medium size part fabrication with complex geometries and adding metal coatings to parts. The Meltio engine can be used for medium size part fabrication, but also large part fabrication such as airplane parts or building materials. Partnering up with a big steel company like ArcelorMittal helps Meltio understand the metal industry as a whole. Together they will shake up metal 3D printing. Meltio’s technology and teamwork will move 3D printing metal parts from a niche process to a mainstream manufacturing process for all kinds of metal parts.
Material Advantages
Meltio is changing the game for metal 3D printing by using wire instead of metal powder. This is due to the directed energy deposition process known as laser metal deposition. Using wire instead of powder has some big advantages. When Meltio first started offering their wire printers, it was obvious this could revolutionize the metal 3d printing industry. Let’s look at why using wire is so much better:
No Waste
First, there’s zero waste. Meltio’s multi-laser system melts the wire perfectly as it enters, so none of the material is wasted. Powder-based printing has waste – between 10% to 18% just gets thrown away! That’s crazy. The wire approach is way more sustainable and lower cost.
Low Cost
And the wire is crazy inexpensive – around $5 per cubic inch. The powders for regular printing are sometimes 10 times more expensive! Especially for certain alloys the price difference is nuts. Wire printing saves a ton of money without losing quality. Businesses should seriously look into it if they want to cut costs.
Overall, the wire method seems like a total game-changer. It’s affordable, wastes nothing, and makes high-quality parts. Meltio is onto something big here. This could totally change the whole metal 3D printing industry.
- Want to know more? Read more from our Introducing: Meltio blog series by clicking on the blog titles listed below: