MELD additively manufactures 3.05m aluminium cylinder, a milestone in the metal additive manufacturing industry

MELD Manufacturing Corporation, Christiansburg, Virginia, USA, has announced that it has additively manufactured a 3.05 metre (10 ft) diameter aluminium cylinder, which has potential to demonstrate the scalability of open-air MELD process.

MELD is a patented, solid-state process for additive manufacturing, repairing, coating, and joining metals and metal matrix composites. Since MELD is an open-atmosphere process, no special vacuums or chambers are needed, making MELD scalable and able to make much larger parts than similar processes.

The size of the cylinder is stated to be a milestone for the company and the metal additive manufacturing industry as a whole.

Nanci Hardwick MELD Manufacturing Corporation CEO states, “There is no other technology that offers this ability to scale.”

According to MELD Manufacturing Corporation, the MELD process continues to gain international users across industries because it allows the use of off-the-shelf metals in solid or powder form, creates fully dense parts, and operates in an open-air environment.