AS9100-certified shop to produce high-value AM parts for aerospace, oil & gas, energy

Vertex Manufacturing’s Tim Warden (L) and Steve Rengers (R) with their Sapphire Inconel 718 additive manufacturing solution from Velo3D.

Vertex Manufacturing has purchased a second end-to-end additive manufacturing solution from Velo3D Inc.—this time dedicated to the superalloy Hastelloy-X. Vertex is the first contract manufacturer to own a Velo3D system that processes this material. The company acquired a Velo3D solution for Inconel 718 alloy, in June.

Hastelloy-X is not a heat-hardened material, so it doesn’t become brittle at high temperatures, and its high oxidation resistance provides durability over many years of continuous use. “3D-printed Hast-X provides unique, robust, material qualities. Combining this with the fact that Vertex is AS9100 certified it will allow us to help our customers take programs from development to production much quicker,” says Warden.

Planning to acquire more AM equipment in the future (after the Hastelloy-X install next month), Steve Rengers, president of Vertex, describes his company’s partnership with VELO3D as an evolving one. Rengers remarked that “Velo3D’s technology—the non-contact recoater, and the ability to do challenging geometries without supports—is a differentiator.”

Rengers has an optimistic view for the future of AM and hopes that the new technology will lead to reduced manufacturing times: “This will be in defense-critical areas such as hypersonics as well as more traditional aerospace and aviation.”

In March, Velo3D announced plans to merge with JAWS Spitfire Acquisition Corporation and become a public company.