BEAD System Combines Additive Manufacturing and Milling Processes – Interview with Belotti

Belotti S.p.A. designs and manufactures CNC centres for milling and trimming operations on composite, plastic and light alloy materials, offering customised solutions that can be integrated with various technologies, including 3D printing extruders. Belotti’s commitment to innovation has led to the development of BEAD hybrid technology, which integrates Large Format Additive Manufacturing with the milling process in a single machining centre. This hybrid system enables the production of oversized parts in less time and with less raw material consumption than traditional methods. In an interview with 3Druck.com, Marketing and Communication Manager Eleonora Marino and Additive Manufacturing Specialist Alberto Riganti, share their insights into the industry.

Founded in Italy in 1979 by engineer Luciano Belotti, the company is headquartered in Suisio and maintains an Innovation Hub in Modena, while operating through its three subsidiaries in America, Germany and China, supported by a network of authorised service centres. It serves industries such as automotive, motorsport, aerospace, marine, railway, energy and construction.

The strong drive towards innovation has let Belotti to develop the so called BEAD hybrid technology, that integrates Large Format Additive Manufacturing with the milling process in a single machining center. BEAD exploits the best of both worlds combining the speed and creative potential of 3D printing with the precision and reliability of a CNC center in a single system. By integrating a CEAD additive manufacturing extruder into a Belotti 5-axis CNC machining centre, BEAD enables the production of parts that are sufficiently oversized to be machined to the required tolerances in less time and with less raw material consumption than traditional methods. Available in different configurations with variable build volumes, extrusion outputs and print orientations, BEAD is used in many industrial sectors to produce models and production tools (moulds, plugs and autoclave tools) using a variety of materials, from commodity to high performance fibre reinforced polymers.

Interview with Belotti

In an interview with 3Druck.com, Marketing and Communication Manager Eleonora Marino and Additive Manufacturing Specialist Alberto Riganti explain the benefits of hybrid manufacturing and discuss the advantages and future prospects of additive manufacturing.

In your opinion, what is the significance of hybrid manufacturing – the combination of CNC and AM technology – for the industry?

Hybrid manufacturing exploits the best of both worlds, combining the speed and creative potential of 3D printing with the precision and reliability of a CNC center in a single system. In the production of tools, manual labor and milling times are minimised since parts can be printed with a minimum amount of extra material to be finished to the required tolerances with accuracies that are only achievable with a gantry system. For small series production, lead times can be drastically reduced, with a total material saving up to 50-80% depending on the application. The bigger is the part, the larger are these advantages.

The possibility to save production time consequently allows customers to reduce power consumption on the overall production process, as the component can be produced in shorter times with respect to the traditional processes. Also, combining two processes in a single solution instead of using two machines of similar large size results space saving in the customers’ facility, which is often something customers take into consideration, together with a lower investment in case of one equipment instead of two.

Additive manufacturing has continuously developed in recent years. Which innovations or technological breakthroughs do you consider to be particularly important for the industry sector?

Producing parts via additive manufacturing not only requires advanced hardware solutions but, especially on large scale, softwares and materials, depending on the application, are crucial for a successful adoption of the technology. Material suppliers, machines and software builders are working together to share data and experiences in order to improve constantly their respective solutions.

Tailored extruding systems, specifically suitable for particular production processes, are being designed; more sustainable and/or performant materials are being formulated in order to meet the most demanding markets; advanced and user-friendly software solutions are being developed to satisfy a manufacturing world asking for innovation but also ease-of-use. Belotti Additive Manufacturing team is working on all these technological issues in close cooperation with its technical partners to offer valuable solutions and features to its clients. 

First Corona and the now high inflation pose major challenges for the entire industry. In your opinion, how do the multiple crises affect the additive manufacturing industry?

Historically, industrial developments have often come as result of social and economic events. Over the past four years, the manufacturing industry has been forced to redesign processes and to review both purchasing and sales strategies due to the multiple crises affecting the business worldwide.

Belotti has acted on both fronts firstly with the opening of the Additive Manufacturing division in 2020 for the BEAD hybrid technology development and production, then with the acquisition of “Officine della Gavarnia” company in 2023 – one of Belotti’s most important suppliers through the supply of mechanical machining on base frames, bridges and structural components of multi-axis CNC centres – with the aim of improving the overall efficiency, by exercising a better control over the production and procurement phases. 

With regards to the additive manufacturing industry, we think 3D printing started to revolutionise this sector years ago. Officially born in the 90s, 3D printing has been now around for a while, constantly evolving trying to satisfy human needs. Started with the production of small parts on demand, helping people to create objects starting just from computer files, coming from a part of the world potentially different from the actual production site, additive manufacturing is growing up in size today.

Today, bigger and bigger parts are printed with the goal to minimise material consumption, and so wastes, with respect to the traditional processes that often rely on not-recyclable sources. Thermoplastic-based extrusion allows instead to produce big parts in short time using materials that can be collected and potentially reused at their end of life. 

Sustainability has become one of the hot-topics under the spotlight as well as a primary goals of an ever-growing number of companies. And thus, material suppliers are investing resources in finding environmentally sustainable solutions, developing biodegradable materials and reusing their own production wastes for new formulations. The environmental matter is definitely one of the main issue today and companies cannot avoid to deal with it, together with time and costs saving, always at the core of business in general. 

What impact do you think additive manufacturing will have on various industries and possibly society as a whole in the coming years?

Together with a more environmental sustainability that additive manufacturing will bring in the production processes, the adoption of the technology will help in developing of new skills and professional competences. To be efficient, the 3D printing process cannot avoid to come through the so-called “design for additive manufacturing” (DfAM), which implies a different way of thinking and design parts with respect to the tradition. It is a long learning process, requiring time and sources, that users must accept if they want to maximise the advantages of additive manufacturing, oftenly coming via trails and errors that help to develop the required experience to exploit and benefit the technology at best.

Here you can find further information on Belotti and the BEAD system.