Optomec to Present at Signature Propulsion Industry Safety and Readiness Conference

March 27, 2015 | By Business Wire News

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

Optomec, a global supplier of 3D Additive Manufacturing systems for production and repair applications, announced today that Tom McDonald, Senior Program Manager for Optomec, will give a presentation at the Propulsion, Safety, and Affordable Readiness (P-SAR) conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The presentation, is entitled, “The Laser Powder Deposition Process, an Essential Pathway to DoD Component Repairs and Engineered Feature Changes”. The conference will be held at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront from March 30-April 2.

Mr. McDonald will present how the Optomec LENS 3D additive manufacturing process is uniquely qualified to perform high quality part repairs and modifications on critical military metal components. The capability to repair versus replace DoD metal components has extremely significant cost, lead time and overall life cycle management implications. Repair costs are often far less than 50% of replacement costs for these components with lead times for repairs measured in days/weeks rather than weeks/months for replacements if they are available at all for some legacy platforms. With DoD platforms now expected to remain in service 10, 20, 30 years and more beyond their design lifetimes, the ability to utilize additive manufacturing for metal component refurbishment and modification is even more critical.

The Optomec LENS process can either fully build 3D metal parts or selectively and precisely add materials onto an existing metal component of almost any 3-dimensional shape making it also ideally suited to perform repair/remanufacturing operations. The process leverages LENS “blown powder” technology, which is an industry proven method to add metal directly onto an existing metal part. The LENS print head delivers powdered metal and a highly focused laser beam to the damaged part area enabling repair of components in a way not possible with traditional repair methods such as welding. The low heat input of the LENS process creates a lower Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) of the part under repair, and reduces the chance of distortion. For more information on Optomec Additive Manufacturing solutions, please click here.

The P-SAR Conference highlights successes in propulsion safety. This year’s conference features leading U.S. propulsion technologists from government, industry, and academia. The propulsion community has continued to reduce the number of safety issues since the mid 1990’s; with HCF and P-SAR as successful efforts. The P-SAR Conference has been a valuable resource to our community in the past. This year, the Exhibit Hall will be common between AA&S (Aircraft Airworthiness & Sustainment) and P-SAR. For more information on P-SAR, click here.

Optomec is a privately-held, rapidly growing supplier of Additive Manufacturing systems. Optomec’s patented Aerosol Jet Systems for printed electronics and LENS 3D Printers for metal components are used by industry to reduce product cost and improve performance. Together, these unique printing solutions work with the broadest spectrum of functional materials, ranging from electronic inks to structural metals and even biological matter. Optomec has more than 175 marquee customers around the world, targeting production applications in the electronics, energy, life sciences and aerospace industries. For more information about Optomec, visit http://optomec.com.

LENS is a registered trademark of Sandia National Laboratories.
Aerosol Jet and Optomec are registered trademarks of Optomec, Inc.