GE Additive (www.ge.com) has announced that its first Concept Laser M Line Factory systems will be delivered to customers in Q2 2019.

Since GE Additive’s acquisition of Concept Laser in December 2016, the M Line Factory’s design architecture, system and software have undergone extensive review and redesign, in line with “established GE processes and beta testing with selected customers”.

Jason Oliver, CEO of GE Additive, said: “The positive impact the M Line Factory can have on our customers’ operations and their bottom line is huge.

“It is important to provide technologically advanced systems that are reliable and add value to our customers.

"Existing stand-alone machine solutions barely allow for economical series production, but the M Line Factory’s modular machine architecture offers outstanding automation and reliability, which drives economical scalable series production on an industrial scale.”

During detailed rig testing and lifetime testing, a number of areas were identified for improvement and have since been incorporated into the system.

These include: improved in-machine architecture and automation; enhanced serviceability, scalable modular-system design and ease of service; increased build volume; and an onboard software system featuring modularised software architecture, superior ‘exposure strategies’ and real-time in-situ process monitoring.

Part production, as well as set-up and the dismantling processes, take place in two independent machine units that can be physically operated separately from one another or combined, depending on each customer’s preference.

This configuration allows production processes to run in parallel rather than sequentially, which reduces down-time considerably and increases the availability and output quantity of the process chain.

Moreover, laser ‘on’ time is optimised by separating the individual work process and the pre/post-processing unit, while maintaining a fully integrated machine design.

The M Line Factory LPS (Laser Processing Station) has a build envelope of 500 x 500 x 400mm (an increased Z axis is under development) and either four x 400W or four x 1,000W lasers.