Additive manufacturing (AM) is living large – literally. These days, with metal 3D printing processes like wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), manufacturers can produce massive parts and tooling for complex applications.
As vice president of global alloys and additive solutions at Lincoln Electric, Patrick Wahlen knows WAAM’s distinct advantages over traditional castings and forgings. He recently appeared on the “Tom & Lonnie Chat” (TLC) episode “Layer by Layer: Lincoln Electric’s Transformation in Additive Manufacturing” on IMTS+ to discuss WAAM and the company’s investments in automation and metal AM.
Growing Parts and Opportunities
For Lincoln Electric, the world’s oldest welding company, working with WAAM has been exciting as the technology rapidly matured and its capabilities expanded.
“Just a handful of years ago, we could use wire arc additive manufacturing to make bits and pieces, but we didn’t have the capability to make a high-quality part. It simply didn’t exist,” Wahlen explains. “We are in startup mode with this and looking at the long term.”
And it’s already paying off. Metal AM is increasingly being used to replace old castings. Lincoln Electric meets its own maintenance needs by scanning, reverse engineering, and 3D printing broken or fractured parts. Printing replacement parts is far faster and cheaper than casting, especially for a one-off. Tooling up for a single casting isn’t practical. (Casting is still more economical and efficient when producing multiple parts – and the bigger the batch, the greater the savings.)
“Instead of stopping production to replace a casting with emerging cracks, we simply print it from the ground up with our own additive manufacturing system,” Wahlen says. “We are proving our own technologies by going big and going bigger.”
Multiplying Use Cases
Lincoln Electric has also tested its WAAM technology by building replacement parts for the U.S. Navy, where going big doesn’t mean just size – but big impact, big stakes, and yes, big dimensions. And nowhere is that more evident than in a submarine’s hinges for a nuclear reactor door.
Tasked with shielding the ship from radiation and providing a watertight seal, reactor doors and hinges are critical to the safety of the crew – and the nation. Producing these massive, dense hinges by casting takes much longer than 3D printing; by the time Lincoln Electric got involved, construction had fallen months behind schedule. WAAM made an immediate impact: The company 3D printed the part in a matter of weeks using MIL-100S, a material of extremely high strength (anything you can weld, you can print). As the first metal 3D printed part on a naval vessel for permanent use, the hinge underwent extensive testing. This involved printing two sets of hinges; one was subjected to destructive testing, and the other set was installed after passing all the requisite tests. It seems that the Navy’s sole reliance on traditional manufacturing processes, such as casting, is heading toward a meltdown.
“That hinge opened the door and opened the eyes of the Navy to what this technology is capable of doing,” Wahlen recalls. “Even with difficult materials, wire arc additive can outperform castings and provide critical components.”
From defense applications to oil and gas solutions, Lincoln Electric is deploying an innovative technology to deliver results on a large scale. That’s big news.
Watch the “Tom & Lonnie Chat” episode “Layer by Layer: Lincoln Electric’s Transformation in Additive Manufacturing” at IMTS.com/TLCLincolnE.
Make plans to see dozens of additive technologies and speak with experts in the Additive Manufacturing Sector, accelerated by Formnext, at IMTS 2026, Sept. 12-19, at McCormick Place in Chicago. Register at IMTS.com/Register.
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