Amace Solutions Pvt Ltd (a part of Ace Micromatic Group) is one of the first indigenous manufacturers of metal based additive manufacturing machines in India. In this interview with Rakesh Rao, Dr Vishwas R Puttige, CEO, Amace Solutions, explains the evolution of additive manufacturing technology and explores its future.

Amace Solutions started off as a R&D project in 2016 and was later spun off as an independent company, taking up customer validation projects for metal printing of diverse market segments and in the process gaining key insights into the capabilities of metal additive manufacturing, equipped with over 30,000 hours of metal printing experience, amace solutions launched its own indigenously designed and developed metal printing system in 2021 called the STLR 400, making it one of the country first to do so. Today with multiple installations across the country in defence, aerospace, die mould and automotive sectors Amace solutions is well poised to be a leading indigenous metal printing OEM.

3D printing is considered as an expensive and low productivity process which has been a major barrier towards to the adoption of the technology, amace solutions has challenged this status quo by introducing a host of high productivity features on the STLR 400, such as a large production ready build volume of 410 x 410 x 450 mm complimented by a dual 1kW lasers, all this at a fraction of the cost compared of an imported system.

Laser Powder bed fusion as a technology is considered as one of the most industry ready technologies for metal printing due to its ability to print high density and high strength parts making it more suited for end use applications (final products). ISRO for instance has been using our machine and technology for printing multiple end use parts for their rockets and satellites, the technology has also found huge application in the healthcare and medical sectors for medical devices and custom implant applications, we also see the die and mould sector using our machines for printing conformally cooled and optimised dies and inserts.

AM is definitely going to be a complimentary technology to conventional processes, but the key is to find the right balance between AM and conventional manufacturing to leverage from the best of both worlds and elevate engineering and manufacturing capabilities.

After the successful and well received launch of the high productivity, Industry ready machine, the STLR 400, we are now glad to announce the launch of our entry level machine the STLR 180 with a cylindrical build volume of Dia 180 x 200 featuring a single 400W laser, which is perfectly suited to cater to the needs of educational and R&D institutions, along with addressing medical and dental application as well.

As OEMs, a large portion of our R&D efforts go towards proving out new materials and increasing our materials portfolio, while also working on improving the process parameters for printing of exiting materials, amace today has a material portfolio of over 13 materials to cater to the needs of various industries with many more under development, more applications are soon to emerge with many industries adopting the technology and finding new use cases for it. 

Some of the key challenges that we see is the willingness of Indian manufacturers to adopt and invest in new technologies, we are seeing some stalwarts who are taking the first plunge and investing in the future and are also benefitting immensely from the same, through this we anticipate a larger section of manufacturers will look into this, we as an industry need to come out of our comfort zone and adopt to newer trends to stay relevant in this ever changing, dynamic market.

Amace has now moved to a new facility with an annual manufacturing capability of over 100 machines, we are gearing up for a future where additive will become a core manufacturing technique and revolutionise the industry as we know it, we are also in the process of creating more awareness among the industry and academia for wider adoption of the technology.