French Navy Validates Meltio’s 3D Printing for Creating and Repairing Metal Parts

Spanish multinational Meltio, based in Linares, develops wire-laser metal deposition solutions for many industrial sectors, including military and defense. The latest to validate its technology for creating and repairing metal parts is the French Navy, which carried out real military offshore maneuvers this spring using a Meltio 3D printer on an experimental basis. This makes it the third military to successfully integrate the company’s wire-LMD technology, and armies in other countries are now looking into validating the solution as well, which solidifies Meltio as a reliable, strategic partner in the defense sector.

A Meltio M450 was used by the French Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, during the Ursa Minor naval exercise in May. This high-intensity operational maintenance exercise is put together by the Fleet Support Service (FSS), and the printer was installed not on the ship, but at the Arsenal base in its homeport of Toulon. A special breakdown repair experiment took place in French Navy workshops in the Toulon-based logistics department, solving immediate needs for manufacturing and repair of fully dense, stainless steel parts. The Meltio printer offered assistance in this offshore maneuver by receiving remote requests for 3D printing from the ship.

Meltio offers a form of Direct Energy Deposition (DED), in which welding wire is introduced into a molten path generated by a laser, and the wires are then stacked on top of each other. The French Navy says that “the speed of execution and efficiency” of Meltio’s printer—which also works with titanium, tool steel, and Inconel—make production more competitive than processes like forging, as the parts are made “at a low production cost per cubic centimeter.”

“We are at an initial point of use of the Meltio M450 for the Marine Nationale. Its state of use is experimental. The French Navy uses the Meltio M450 on land. The machine is installed at our naval base, located in the city of Toulon. After months of previous testing at our technology center in Toulouse (DGA/Techniques Aéronautiques), South of France, to test Meltio’s DED wire-laser technology, the printer was approved for transfer to Toulon. The main objective of this transfer is to test this machine for the needs of the Marine ships that are sailing with their repair and manufacturing needs in different metallic materials, mainly stainless steels and inconel, for which the Meltio M450 seems efficient in the result of the parts obtained,” said Jean-Marc Quenez, Director of Innovation and Additive Manufacturing at the Service de Soutien de la Flotte (SSF) of the French Ministry of Defense.

The French Ministry of Defense has publicly confirmed that it is continuing to validate the company’s technology. Additionally, after the success of this first exercise, the French Navy is already considering using the Meltio M450 in future real-life maneuvers, and installing it on ships in the fleet.

“We have chosen the Meltio M450 for this first step in metal 3D printing because it allows us to repair easily existing metal parts and with this machine we produce test parts with DED technology, not final parts, which we then post-process and machine according to our needs,” Quenez continued. “The Meltio M450 meets our expectations for reliability and is very easy for our engineers to use. We anticipate this metal 3D printer to remain functional and be part of our pilot program for additive manufacturing use.”

In its press release, Meltio explains how the defense sector aims to increase both the operability of fleets and the resources in operations, improve the supply and logistics chains of militaries, and help avoid any issues with obsolete parts. All of this can be achieved through 3D printing. According to “Additive Manufacturing for Military and Defense” by AM Research, which was our first ever intelligence report on the 3D printing market for defense, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) will spend an estimated $1.8 billion directly on AM by 2032. While France was the first country to successfully integrate Meltio’s AM technology for defense purposes, another was the U.S.

In 2023, Meltio and its U.S. distributor Phillips Corporation partnered to install the Phillips Additive Hybrid onboard the USS Bataan, a Wasp-class amphibious assault warship. The hybrid system integrates Meltio’s wire-LMD technology with a Haas TM-1 computer numerical control mill, and was installed as part of a joint effort between the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Technology Office and the Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic (SURFLANT).

When you’re in remote places, it’s challenging to obtain spare parts, which is why 3D printing can be so useful aboard ships. The USS Bataan, according to Meltio, was the first to deploy a hybrid manufacturing system onboard a ship, and the Phillips Hybrid Additive was used for repairs and manufacturing spare parts, like a replacement metal plate for a ballast air compressor (DBAC). This forces pressurized air through saltwater tanks, which are filled to reduce a ship’s draft during amphibious operations; the part also discharges accumulated saltwater. By using the hybrid system, the crew was able to make the replacement plate in just five days, rather than waiting for weeks to get it through traditional naval supply channels.

The success of deploying the Phillips Hybrid Additive onboard the USS Bataan led to recognition from the DoD, as Meltio won fifth place in the 2023 xTechInternational Advanced Manufacturing and Materials competition. This gives participants the chance to pitch novel technology solutions directly to the DoD.

Meltio is also a strategic technology partner in the defense sector of its home country, as the Spanish Army validated its technology for metal part manufacturing and repair. Additionally, its Spanish distributor Sicnova, which actually founded Meltio as a joint venture with Additec in 2019, entered into an €82.6 million contract with the Spanish Ministry of Defense at the end of 2023 to introduce metal AM to the Spanish Armed Forces over the next four years. Spain’s Secretary of State for Defence, Amparo Valcarce, signed the agreement to implement “joint actions for the development and execution of a digitisation strategy that simplifies the manufacture of parts and spares in their supply chains.”

From the U.S., South Korea, and Australia to India, the U.K., and now France, more militaries around the world are investing in additive manufacturing. So this is certainly a lucrative direction for Meltio.