The Elmet Group’s subsidiary Elmet Technologies is installing a DMP Flex 350 Triple metal 3D printer from 3D Systems to produce heat exchangers for hypersonic vehicles.
According to 3D Systems, the company expects to qualify and certify the system to begin production in 2026.
The deployment follows eight years of joint development between Elmet and 3D Systems’ Application Innovation Group (AIG), focused on building printing parameters for C103. The alloy, composed of niobium, hafnium and titanium, is designed for extreme high-temperature aerospace applications, but processing it in a laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) system requires unusually tight control of oxygen levels.
“This collaboration with Elmet is a standout example of using metal additive manufacturing to create new advantages in aerospace design and production,” said Mike Shepard, Vice President of Aerospace & Defense, 3D Systems. “The low oxygen architecture of our DMP series metal additive machines is ideal for manufacture of complex components from highly reactive metals, like C103 and other refractory alloys.”
Why Oxygen Control Matters
The DMP Flex 350 Triple maintains oxygen below 25 parts per million (ppm), with typical levels between 0 and 6 ppm. For comparison, ambient air contains roughly 210,000 ppm of oxygen. Keeping oxygen that low allows powder to be reused across multiple builds without degrading material properties, which matters for per-part economics when working with a costly refractory alloy.
That powder reuse capability becomes especially relevant at the scale Elmet is targeting. The printer operates three lasers across a 350 x 350 x 350 mm build volume, and Elmet plans to use it for large heat exchangers printed as single monolithic components. The alternative, brazing, requires fabricating individual sections, aligning them, applying filler metal and running the assembly through a furnace.
3D printing from a single digital file removes those intermediate steps along with the joints they produce, which are potential failure points under extreme thermal cycling. The process also allows for thin walls and high surface-to-volume ratios that are difficult to achieve through conventional fabrication, and requires no part-specific tooling.
Producing these components in-house also addresses supply chain concentration. Refractory metals like C103 pass through relatively few suppliers and fabricators, and Elmet is positioning additive manufacturing as a way to reduce that exposure. The company describes this as localized production capability for the US defense industrial base.
Building Reliable C103 Production Workflows
Elmet is not the only company working to qualify C103 for additive manufacturing. Last year, Velo3D was reportedly advancing qualification of C103 niobium powder from Amaero on its Sapphire 3D printers, after Auburn University’s National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) confirmed the powder met ASTM F3635 Class B standards following a 2,200°F heat treatment.
The qualification effort highlights that establishing reliable production workflows for C103 remains an industry-wide challenge rather than a company-specific one.
The cost of C103 powder helps explain why process control and powder reuse are central to making refractory metal 3D printing economically viable. NCAME reported that it was evaluating C103 using a high-throughput testing approach developed in partnership with Amaero, noting that the powder costs up to $4,000 per/kg.
At that price, any process that reduces powder waste or shortens the testing cycle has a direct effect on production costs. NCAME’s approach was designed to generate process-structure-property data in weeks rather than the months or years that outsourced, multi-laboratory evaluation can require.
Eight years is a long development cycle for a single material-machine combination, but refractory alloys demand it. C103 is oxygen-sensitive, expensive, and limited in its supplier base, and qualifying a printing process for aerospace production requires building a body of data that satisfies both internal standards and agency certification.
Elmet’s stated goal of entering production in 2026 suggests the company believes much of the qualification groundwork has already been completed during the eight-year development effort.
3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here.
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Featured image shows a 3D printed metal heat exchanger showing internal tube geometry produced as a single monolithic component. Photo via 3D Systems.
