Metal 3D Printing Partners for Meltio as it Expands to Brazil & Europe

Laser metal additive manufacturing technology manufacturer Meltio, which launched in the market at Formnext 2019 with its directed energy deposition technology, recently announced new sales partners in North America and the Benelux region, with more to come. The company’s latest sales partner is Máquinas e Soluções, which will distribute and support Meltio’s metal AM solutions in the Brazilian market.

Part of the international MOLGROUP founded in the early 1900s, Máquinas e Soluções opened its doors in 2018 and supplies quality industrial equipment and services for industry in Brazil, including lathes, automation, 3D printers, turnkey projects, machining centers, Industry 4.0 solutions, and more. As Meltio’s official sales partner in Brazil, the company will work to build up a strong ecosystem for the technology by partnering with and setting up business opportunities alongside industry, technology centers, tooling machine companies, academia, and robotic integrators. Meltio’s metal AM solution is built around the market’s cleanest, safest, and most affordable metal feedstock—welding wire—which allows the company to work on industrial applications.

Speaking of Meltio’s technology, its Brazilian sales partner isn’t the company’s only partnership news. Meltio also announced that technology startup Ziknes, which specializes in in software for robotic 3D printing, is the first official integrator of its Meltio Engine for metal additive manufacturing with robotic arms in Portugal and Spain. Meltio’s exclusive sales partner Sicnova, which distributes its technology in the Iberian Peninsula, helped make this agreement a reality.

“We are thrilled to be working with Ziknes and Sicnova, as the collaboration between sales and integration partners within the Meltio ecosystem is critical to fast-track technology adoption in a territory,” said Gerard García, Meltio’s Head of Sales and Marketing. “Together with Ziknes, we are now able to cater to the needs of the ever-growing Spanish and Portuguese robotic metal additive manufacturing market.”

The Meltio Engine is a multi-laser deposition head that can process wire or powder metal feedstock for DED 3D printing, and can be integrated into existing CNC systems and robot arms. Ziknes has plenty of experience with higher-end technology applications, having worked in the past with companies like Jaguar and Tesla, and since deciding to focus only on metal robotic 3D printing applications, it’s now working with Meltio as part of Sicnova’s commercial ecosystem.

“Ziknes plays a key role in our ecosystem, as an official Meltio Engine integrator for robotic systems. At Sicnova we firmly believe in the potential of this technology for companies in the industrial sector that want to further their production processes, with a special focus on process automation,” explained Agustín García, Sicnova Sales Manager. “That is why we wanted to count on Ziknes, a young company with great talent and know-how in this type of applications, so that our customers have all the facilities and our guarantee to implement this cutting-edge technology.”

Meltio says that its Engine Robot Integration “breaks the traditional manufacturing barriers associated with metal 3D printing,” which is why Ziknes wants to use the solution to shake things up in this area by introducing metal AM capabilities to more applications and industries. The multi-metal technology stacks weld beads precisely on top of each other once they’re in a laser-generated meltpool, and because the build envelope is limited only by the size of the motion system, this robotic arm solution makes it possible to achieve large-scale metal 3D printing. The process uses commodity welding wire, which, as mentioned previously, is not only the safest and cleanest metal feedstock, but also the least expensive one as well.

“Being able to enter to the additive industry with great players such as Sicnova and Meltio was what made us not to hesitate to found Ziknes. Together with Meltio’s innovative technology, we want to introduce our knowledge of automating robotic processes and industrial software development, to create metal parts with laser metal deposition technology,” said Ziknes CEO Nacho León. “We have no doubt that joining the experience of the three companies will make it easier to use this technology in any sector.”

In addition to large and complex metal 3D printing, the Meltio Engine Robot Integration can also be used for adding features to existing parts, as well as cladding and repair.