Sintavia is already expanding its facilities to handle the increasing customer workload, with goals of adding 35 more AM systems plus larger furnaces and HIP equipment by 2020.
When the Sintavia production company came on my radar last winter, I was surprised by the depth of its capabilities. I thought, here's an additive manufacturing (AM) service provider to watch — and how have I missed it? After digging into it some more, I was so impressed I found myself further wondering, will it fill the hole left by Morris Technologies?
In 2012 GE Aviation acquired Morris Technologies for in-house work, essentially shutting off that source of high-end metal AM parts procurement for everyone else. Yet in a classic case of "when one door closes, another one opens," the timing was perfect for Sintavia founder and CEO Brian Neff to start offering similar services all thoroughly certified for aerospace, defense and other industrial customers. (The name Sintavia comes from "sintering" and "aviation.") For customers who demand quality throughout the supply chain, Sintavia, based in Davie, FL is well on its way.
Newcomers to AM part production often see the job as simply requiring a service provider to take a 3D CAD file, ensure the design envelope will fit in the build volume of an AM system, and run it in a particular metal. Neff says it's better to start with the requirements of the end part; for a customer to say, here's a 3D drawing, here are the metals we're most comfortable with – help us create the file or help us make it fit the criteria.
Material-wise, Sintavia works primarily with titanium, nickel and aluminum, the traditional cast-metal materials, for customers in aerospace, engine design and space applications, respectively. He feels that list will expand over time. The company has previously worked with maraging steel for tooling, and has capabilities in-house for testing and mixing other powdered materials.
Sintavia is already expanding its facilities to handle the increasing customer workload, with goals of adding 35 more AM systems plus larger furnaces and HIP equipment by 2020. Already, says Neff, "Our digital advanced manufacturing facility (opening in Hollywood FL in Q3 2018) will continue to replicate the vertical integration we have in our existing shop but with more of a flow for larger scale production. What we have now is not big enough for what we need to do." They also plan to replicate this factory system in other locations around the country, including the upper Midwest, Southwest and Northwest.
NOTE: Sintavia offers videos with a wealth of fine detail about design optimization, powder testing, post-processing and mechanical testing and analysis. See Optimized Turbine Bracket case study and Sintavia Testing and Analysis of Aerospace Parts Made by Additive Manufacturing.