Industry News


GE Speeds Up 3D Printing Push with Bids for SLM, Arcam


General Electric launched bids on


Tuesday to buy two of the world’s top makers of machines for metal-based 3D printing – Sweden’s Arcam and Germany’s SLM Solutions – for a total $1.4 billion to bolster its position in the fast-growing technology.


GE has long been one of the main proponents of industrial 3D printing, using it to make fuel nozzles for its new LEAP jet engine in what marked a big step in using the technology in mass production. GE, which laid the foundation for its 3D printing push with the acquisition of 3D printing specialists Morris Technologies in 2012, said it expected its new 3D printing business to grow to $1 billion by 2020 at attractive returns. “Additive manufacturing will drive


B&L Information Systems Promotes Todd Elrick


B&L Information Systems is pleased to announce the promotion of Todd Elrick to Senior Systems Engineer. Elrick has been with B&L since 2011. “This promotion aligns Todd’s title


to the various work assignments he has been given over the past year, along with supporting future assignments,” stated Joe Harmon, Vice President, Technology and Support. “Todd suc- cessfully handles multi-faceted projects with ramifications that directly impact customers, all while providing excep- tional technical support. Numerous customers have benefited from having Todd be part of their B&L project.” Elrick joined B&L as a Systems with


Engineer a background in


technical support for several industry leading businesses; he holds a B.A. in


Product Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has also attained technical certificates in his field which include: CompTIA A+ and Net+, and Microsoft MCDST and MCSA.


About B&L Information Systems B&L


Information Systems is a


global leader in providing integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) for metalcasters. Since 1976, B&L has used their deep understanding of the specific challenges and problems of foundries and die casters to create an ERP solution which matches the way metalcasters operate, making it easier to learn and use. With Odyssey, metalcasters will maximize their resources, minimize costs, and make better decisions faster.


new levels of productivity for GE, our customers, including a wide array of additive manufacturing customers, and for the industrial world,” GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said in a statement. While GE’s Aviation unit has so far been the most active in using the 3D printing technology, parts are also being designed in its Power, Oil & Gas and Healthcare units, as well as across GE’s services businesses. “GE shows its commitment regarding the industrial use of 3D technology and mass implementation of this technology in industrial production,” Equinet analyst Cengiz Sen said a research note. Arcam’s and SLM’s technologies complement each other as Arcam uses an electron beam as an energy source, while SLM uses lasers. 3D printing technology involves taking digital designs from computer aided design software, and laying horizontal cross-sections to manufacture the part.


Since parts are built from the ground


up, one of the big benefits is that it generates far less scrap metal than in traditional manufacturing.


November 2016 ❘ 29 ®


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