North American metal 3D printing bureau Sintavia has announced plans to build an advanced manufacturing facility in Hollywood, Florida.
Sintavia is currently based in nearby Davie and state the new location is expected to be built by mid-2018. The 55,000 square foot ‘Factory of the Future’ will also serve as the company’s new headquarters.
Investment into this facility comes just months after Sintavia received $15 million in equity financing.
Quadrupling production
According to the manufacturing bureau, the new facility will “quadruple Sintavia’s current production capacity.” Sintavia also expects the introduction of the factory to add 135 jobs to the Florida area.
Adding to Sintavia’s current production capabilities, “the new facility will house over $20m of new machinery, including larger AM equipment, an automated powder handling system, an uninterruptable power supply, an inert gas farm, and an enhanced post-processing footprint.”
Expanding technologies
Interestingly, CEO and chairman Brian Neff states the additional space will be used “not only to grow our existing competencies in laser and electron beam melting, but also to industrialize new technologies such as metal binder jet manufacturing.” The CEO is perhaps referring to ExOne and its metal ‘Binder Jetting’ technology. The Pennsylvania company’s method uses liquid to bind metal powders and eliminates the need for a heat source while printing.
Until now Sintavia has solely used powder bed fusion machines and currently houses several from companies such as Arcam, SLM, EOS, and Concept Laser.
End-to-end metal
Sintavia’s current production facilities undergo stringent testing and certification processes and Doug Hedges, President and COO, explains this philosophy will continue with the new location,
Our ability to rapidly qualify machines and processes—through the use of our on-site laboratories, scanning, and post-processing equipment—demonstrates meaningful value to our customers. This same approach will continue on a larger scale with our new production facility.
The North American bureau also recently added CT scanning to its production process in order to ensure quality in the metal printed parts. As well as adding the ability to produce parts in F357 aluminum at the beginning of the year.
With the 3D Printing Industry Awards taking place this month in London, make sure to place your votes to decide the winners.
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Featured image shows the proposed Hollywood facility. All images, unless otherwise stated, via Sintavia.
