A Huddersfield company that designs and builds electron beam metal 3D printers, using a technique called NeuBeam to print hard-to-process metals.
Wayland Additive designs, develops, makes and sells industrial metal 3D printers. Its machines use electron beam powder bed fusion, which means a beam of electrons melts thin layers of metal powder, layer by layer, to build a solid part inside a vacuum chamber. Its first machine, the Calibur3, launched in March 2021 using the company's NeuBeam process. The company says NeuBeam can make dense parts from metals that older methods struggle with, such as high-carbon steels and reflective alloys.
The story starts at Reliance Precision, a Huddersfield engineering firm that is about a century old. Its then Technical Director, Ian Laidler, was asked to look at metal 3D printing systems. He had a background in semiconductor work and electron beam lithography, and he believed an electron beam approach could give better materials and higher productivity. With Innovate UK grants, his team spent about three years developing the process before spinning out to form Wayland. Chief executive Will Richardson said in 2021: "Now it is our mission to really demonstrate the difference that Calibur3 can make for metal AM applications."
Wayland is based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Its company page gives the address as Unit 7, Park Valley Court, Meltham Road, HD4 7BH, and it is a registered English company. A 2019 article describes a move into a new site about five miles from Reliance Precision that brought the whole team together, from research and development to machine assembly. In 2022 the company extended its headquarters with a dedicated production factory and separate premises for research, including a fully equipped testing lab. Its machines have been installed at a new RAF centre and at the University of Innsbruck.
On people and culture, the company's own page describes a team with a semiconductor engineering background and, it says, more than 150 years of combined electron beam experience. Leaders include chief executive Will Richardson, chief technology officer Chris Smith, chief operating officer Nick Weeks, who has worked in aerospace manufacturing and advanced materials, and chief financial officer Adam Uttley. In 2022 the company said it was adding staff in research, production, software development and sales. The pages we read do not describe the working culture in detail, so we have not invented a description.
The mix of jobs at a company like this is wide. There are engineers who design the electron beam and vacuum systems, materials scientists who test new metals in the lab, technicians who assemble machines in the production factory, software developers who write the control and monitoring software, and sales and finance staff who bring in customers. If you enjoy physics, chemistry, engineering or computing, a firm that builds a new kind of machine from scratch shows how those subjects join up in a real product. Customers named in its news include aerospace, defence, medical, mining and motorsport users.
Website: www.waylandadditive.com
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