The first report for Additive Manufacturing Research (AMR) that I wrote solo was about the AM market opportunity in semiconductor capital equipment (semicap) components. Published in early 2024, the report was one I personally pushed for, because of how much I believe that AM aligns with the needs of semicap manufacturers.

Two years later, the report is arguably more relevant than it was at the time of its initial publication: the uncertainty of the AI boom trajectory dictates that semicap OEMs need to be as flexible as possible in their production strategies, an objective that AM can help them meet. A recently-announced partnership between German software provider amsight, Dutch consultancy Additive Center, and service bureau Melotte (also based in the Netherlands) demonstrates how the semicap market may soon have an even easier path to scaling its use of metal AM.

A startup based in Hamburg specializing in AM software solutions that support end-to-end quality control (QC), amsight worked with Additive Center to implement “a comprehensive data capturing system” at Melotte’s Netherlands facility, which enables the service bureau to trace every step of the print process, from materials through final inspection. That very last step is in fact the key differentiator, according to the companies involved in the effort: by tracing the entire process so meticulously, they claim they’ve achieved a milestone in reducing the need for CT scanning.

It’s especially noteworthy that, as the companies point out in the press release, this isn’t a theoretical capability, but rather one that’s currently operational in Melotte’s workflow, and is already being used to streamline the print process for semicap components. According to the partners, they plan to follow up on the first phase of implementation by leveraging the data gained to create a set of ‘Critical-to-Quality’ (CTQ) parameters.

In a press release about the partnership between amsight, Additive Center, and Melotte to establish an AM data-capturing protocol at Melotte’s production facility in the Netherlands, Harry Kleijnen of Additive Center said, “The industry often mistakes ‘machine monitoring’ for ‘process control’. What we have achieved with Melotte and amsight is the integration of the total process. We aren’t just looking at the laser; we are looking at the entire lifecycle of the part. This is the first step towards increasing process understanding and thus reducing the use of CT scanning.”

One of the companies at the center of the report I wrote in 2024 was ASML, a Dutch company that is perhaps the singular most important link in the global semiconductor supply chain. ASML has been using metal AM for end-use parts for over a decade, making it one of the most experienced metal AM users in the world.

It’s worth mentioning that ASML works with Additive Center on at least one AM educational initiative. Plus, given the geographical proximity of Additive Center and Melotte to ASML’s headquarters, ASML will likely be one of the beneficiaries of the enhanced capabilities that Melotte has acquired thanks to amsight. In any case, the partnership reinforces the idea that semicap OEMs have a sustained long-term interest in accelerating the scalability of metal AM.

With all that in mind, while the amsight/Additive Center/Melotte project is already paying off for Melotte’s existing operations, I think that the true potential of the work lies in how it could change the timeline for the semicap industry’s AM adoption journey. Any step in the printing process that can be sped up and made less expensive brings AM that much closer to competing with other manufacturing processes.

Thus, the output gains yielded by a reduction of the use of CT scanning could be precisely the thing that convinces a company like ASML to plan for more metal AM components across its supply chain. And, if this early stage of the data-capturing process proves successful, amsight and its partners will have created a model optimizing other steps in the metal AM workflow.

Image courtesy of amsight