Prima Industrie enters the realm of additive manufacturing

After adding a laser technology company, a 3-D laser equipment manufacturer, and a bending machine and automation company to its portfolio over the last 20 years, Prima Industrie has announced its next obvious step: It’s getting into the additive manufacturing (AM) business.

The company made the announcement during its first Innovation Day event at its headquarters and technology center in Collegno, Italy, on Oct. 3. More than 160 guests, including the North American trade press, were in attendance as the machine tool manufacturer launched its Prima Additive business unit. Prima Industrie’s other two divisions are Prima Power, which builds laser and sheet metal fabricating machinery, and Prima Electro, which focuses on laser technology and industrial electronics.

“With the 20th century being the century of electronics, we believe the 21st century will be about photonics,” said Gianfranco Carbonato, Prima Industries Group president.

The company is no stranger to the laser business. It introduced the first 5-axis laser machine to the manufacturing world 40 years ago. Today it has $519 million in annual sales and has 13,000 machines installed in 80 countries.

“We are interested in additive manufacturing as an expansion of our laser-based technology applications,” said Palo Calefati, Prima Industrie’s additive business development director.

Calefati said strides in the development of Prima Additive’s first technology introductions were made during the company’s involvement with the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Over the past four years, Prima Industrie researchers and engineers helped to develop a machine capable of deposition and ablation functions while working with different types of material.

Elements of that technology development have worked their way into Prima Industrie’s new AM equipment offerings. For example, a high-speed camera is embedded within the laser head and monitors the size and shape of the melt pool from the best possible point of view. Additionally, a set of two other cameras and an infrared camera are used to monitor the thermal profile. This information is then fed back to the process control package to generate the next layer strategy or a “recovery action” in the case of incorrect process execution—as the job is taking place.

At Innovation Day, Prima Industrie unveiled two of its AM machines:

• The Print Sharp 250 (see Figure 1) is a compact powder bed fusion machine. It is designed for high-precision AM jobs and can be equipped with a 200- to 500-Watt fiber laser. It has a working envelope of 250 by 250 by 300 millimeters and a build rate of 12 to 30 cubic centimeters per hour.
• The Laserdyne 795 (see Figure 2) is a much larger unit and is one of three laser metal deposition units, one of which is smaller (Laserdyne 430) and the other larger (Laser Next 2141). The 795 has a working area of 4,140 by 2,100 by 1,020 mm and a maximum build rate of 70 cm3/hr. It is available with a fiber laser power source from 1 to 6 kW.

Calefati said the Print Sharp 250 is being built in China with the company’s partner Shining 3D, which was founded in 2014 as one of the first 3-D printing technology companies in China. Prima Industries is partnering with Materalise on the design software.

“We are not stopping the development here,” Calefati said.

In fact, guests could see the footprint of a $7 million facility going up right behind the Prima Industrie headquarters. The new facility will house a demonstration area for Prima Additive equipment, research and development activities to refine some of the innovative work being done as part of national and European research projects, and training space where manufacturers can learn more about additive manufacturing. The goal is to start occupying the building by next spring.

“Today we are witnessing the developing of these new applications of laser to metal working and their disruptive potential. It is a fascinating new manufacturing paradigm,” Carbonato said.