SLM Solutions announced today that it is working with Honeywell, a leading user of additive manufacturing technologies with extensive knowledge across various platforms and applications, to help qualify new additive manufacturing parameters that enable printing at increased thicknesses. The partnership will help both companies reduce printing times and costs.

As part of the partnership, Honeywell's Aerospace business will begin qualification efforts for aluminum builds using increased layer thicknesses of 60 and 90 micron on the SLM500. SLM Solutions will provide their standard aluminum parameter sets for Honeywell to complete material qualification utilizing the quad-laser systems to achieve optimal material properties.

"SLM Solutions' latest technology will help Honeywell improve productivity while also meeting our material requirements for qualification," said Dr. Soren Wiener, senior director of technology and advanced operations for Honeywell's Aerospace business. "We intend to qualify these parameter sets through repeatability testing in our production environment, including build and post-processing to generate an efficient process with a set of material property data."

Meddah Hadjar, CEO of SLM Solutions Group AG, is confident in the success of the cooperation: "As the productivity leaders in powder bed fusion, SLM Solutions has been continuously working to reduce build times by combining high-powered lasers with advanced parameter sets. Our open architecture machines allow for customization, and we've shown over 60% reduction in build time with 170% real build rate increases compared to standard 30 micron parameters on our twin-laser machines. We're excited to work together with Honeywell Aerospace to further advance the industry through the qualification of even more advanced parameter sets for quad-laser systems used in qualified serial production."