Aeromet is one of the most innovative foundries in England. The company specializes in the manufacture of components for the aviation and aerospace industry. The Brits have perfected the investment casting of aluminum special alloys that are typical in the aviation industry.

The company’s decision to invest in the compact VX500 3D printer from voxeljet is based on a number of reasons, explains a company spokesperson: “First, the 3D printer allows us to manufacture very complex molds, which would either be too expensive or impossible to make using conventional methods. Secondly, we were able to significantly reduce manufacturing times while simultaneously lowering our costs. And last but not least, on a technical level the prototypes are now closer to the subsequent series components than ever before.”

The integration of the VX500 into the production environment was completed without any issues. The compact unit did not take long to install and immediately went into operation. The qualified staff was very excited about the easy operation of the 3D printer. Following a short training and introduction period, the staff has already become very proficient at operating the machine, which is used for printing so-called lost plastic models exactly according to CAD data for investment casting. The models impress with a high level of precision and good burn-out characteristics, even for complex molds.

Aeromet’s customers in the aviation and aerospace industry value the advantages offered by today’s 3D printing technology. They benefit not just from lower costs, but also time savings and advantages for the evaluation of their prototypes.

In January 2015, voxeljet commenced operations and began printing parts for customers at its North American Services facility located in Canton, Michigan (near Detroit). The approximately 50,000 square foot facility will initially operate four large-format printers to support both the sand casting and investment casting markets. The Company expects to install additional sand and plastic printers, including the VX4000 during the course of the year. Voxeljet anticipates its Canton, Michigan facility having similar printing capacity to its Friedberg, Germany service center by the end of 2016.

We hosted our first customer seminar on January 20th which included presentations from David Tait, Managing Director of Voxeljet of America Inc., Ingo Ederer CEO of voxeljet AG, and Tom Mueller, Director of Casting Applications, North America.

“Our inaugural customer seminar was very successful”, said David Tait, Managing Director of Voxeljet of America Inc. “We were able to share various historical applications with customers of the aerospace, automotive and heavy equipment sectors. Many of these 3D printing technology users were excited about the facility’s capabilities as well as the very robust machine engineering quality. We look forward to our growing presence in the market.”