Over the past few years, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has made many headlines with its collaboration with Cincinnati Inc. on Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) technology, which recently produced the world’s largest 3-D printed item ever. Last week at IMTS 2016, news broke that ORNL and Ingersoll will collaborate on a 3-D printer even bigger than BAAM.
The new 3-D printer, known as Wide and High Additive Manufacturing (WHAM), is Ingersoll’s first foray into 3-D printing. According to Ingersoll, with a standard work envelope of 23’ x 10’ x 46’ and target material deposition rate of 1,000 lbs/hour, WHAM machines will perform at an order of magnitude larger and faster than any printer currently on the market.
The company adds that while it is new to 3-D printing, its development of WHAM will “draw on a wealth of existing proficiencies.” Ingersoll’s portfolio includes many of the world’s largest metal cutting and automated fiber placement (AFP) machines, and it says its AFP technology is an additive composite process in itself.
