GE works to aggressively transform additive manufacturing firm Concept Laser

Less than three months after acquiring controlling ownership of additive manufacturing specialist Concept Laser (Lichtenfels, Germany), GE (Boston, MA) is moving quickly to transform the company by expanding its headquarters, growing its employee base and support teams, and investing in next-generation additive manufacturing equipment and materials.

When GE acquired a 75% stake of Concept Laser in December 2016, the company had about 200 employees. Today, employment has grown to 244 and is expected to reach between 350 to 400 people (mostly engineers and technicians) by early 2018. The company is bolstering its field service operations in the United States and Germany, and adding engineers in such areas as production, quality control, development, and test.

Meanwhile, architectural concepts are being finalized for a significant expansion of Concept Laser's headquarters in Lichtenfels, with new floor space for manufacturing, product development and test, and administration. The company also has significant operations in Grapevine, TX, China, and a global network of distributors and agents. It designs and manufacturers powder bed-based laser additive manufacturing machines, with a customer base focused on the aerospace, medical, and dental industries, as well as a meaningful presence in automotive and jewelry.

Concept Laser is collaborating with the GE Additive Technology Center (ATC; Cincinnati, OH), where GE engineers are identifying where additive manufacturing can be used to mass-produce sophisticated components for industrial products, including components for jet engines produced by GE Aviation, an end user of additive manufacturing technology.

GE has invested approximately $1.5 billion in manufacturing and additive technologies at GE's Global Research Center (GRC), developed additive applications across six GE businesses, created new services applications across the company, and earned 346 patents in powder metals used for the additive manufacturing process.

For more information, please visit www.ge.com and www.concept-laser.de.