RMIT buys AML3D large-format metal printer

Wire-based 3D printing business AML3D has sold one of its Arcemy machines to Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, following a sale to the University of Queensland last month.

The purchase of approximately $400,000 is for a machine able to print in various metal alloys at a rate of about 7 to 8 kilograms per hour to create near-net shapes up to 1.5 cubic metres in volume and 750 kilograms in mass. It uses a process that combines wire arc welding and robotics, and which AML3D refers to as WAM. 

The acquisition was funded through the state government’s Victorian Higher Education State Investment Fund.

AML3D founder and Managing Director Andy Sales said it was encouraging to see research organisations adopting his company’s machines and research into WAM.

“To be able to supply the RMIT Additive Manufacturing Centre with our sophisticated integrated wire-based Arcemy 3D printing unit, under the guidance of Prof Milan Brandt and industry expert Alex Kingsbury is exciting and endorsing,” said Sales.

“There is an expectation that we will work closely with RMIT in the future around specific R&D programs that will benefit both parties in research, industry application and student based learning and research.”

The university and the Adelaide-based company would work together on installation and commissioning of and training on the new printer unit, with expected use “for R&D across a number of metal alloy grades for post doctorate research, education and industry related applications.”

Brandt, Director of the RMIT Additive Manufacturing Centre, added that the purchase “complements our current range of 3D printing technologies and opens the opportunities for working closely with Victorian and more broadly Australian organisations on delivering new products and processes based on this technology as well as train the next generation of engineers in digital manufacturing.”

Picture: AML3D

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