In just three years, Lincoln Electric Co. has built in Euclid what may be the largest 3D printing factory of its kind anywhere. The operation, Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions (LAS), mates Lincoln's core arc welding capability with robotics to give the 125-year-old company entry into additive manufacturing, a rapidly growing sector of the manufacturing industry.

3D printing puts down layers of material, using a computer-guided design, to create three-dimensional objects. LAS's operation uses a kind of 3D printing called wire-arc additive manufacturing, or WAAM, that involves a process Lincoln has been working with for decades, arc welding. A robot-guided electric welder melts wire that is deposited layer upon layer in a process that uses multi-axis turntables to create a piece that may take days to build.Additive manufacturing contrasts with traditional component manufacturing, where blocks of material are stamped and then machined or cut to trim excess or where liquids are poured into molds and solidify when cooled. Additive manufacturing builds materials into a finished product, which may have channels or hollowed-out cores that traditional methods couldn't create. In Lincoln's case, that means melting welding wire in hundreds, even thousands of layers.

"They're experts in welding, as they have been for a hundred years, and this style of 3D printing is basically redeploying welding as a 3D printing process," said Peter Zelinski, editor-in-chief of Additive Manufacturing, which covers the industry in print and online.

While the company won't disclose sales figures, Amanda Butler, Lincoln's vice president of investor relations and communications, said that with LAS Lincoln is building a "$100 million-type business." Lincoln Electric had sales of $3.2 billion in 2021.

"We have tucked it within a $500 million robotics business and the goal is to double that to a billion at the end of 2025," she said.

Lincoln is one of a growing number of Northeast Ohio businesses developing additive manufacturing, said Ethan Karp, president and CEO of MAGNET, the nonprofit that works to help manufacturers in the region grow.

"We are known across the country for 3D printing as a region, and it's through examples like (Lincoln)," Karp said. "They're like a stealth technology company who's revolutionizing one of the oldest manufacturing processes. They're a hidden gem."

Karp also pointed out that Youngstown is the home of America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. America Makes was founded by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2012 and now brings together industry, academia, government, workforce and economic development organizations to work to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing.

ThomasNet, formerly the Thomas Register of American Manufacturers, lists 36 Oho suppliers of 3D printing services.

The pieces Lincoln's robotic equipment makes can be anything from castings used to stamp out propeller blade components to building one-off replacement parts for a machine made by a long out-of-business equipment maker. The robots can produce unique shapes and even create in a single piece equipment that otherwise needed to be created out of several pieces, such as tubular T-K-Y joints (T-shaped, K-shaped and Y-shaped joints) needed to build offshore oil drilling rigs.

One of Lincoln's advantages in this business is that it makes all the pieces and parts in-house. In addition to the welding equipment and wire, it makes its own power sources for the equipment and it has developed the robots and the software needed to design pieces. A key piece that helped kick off its additive manufacturing venture was added in 2015 when it purchased Wolf Robotics, a Fort Collins, Colorado, firm that developed robotic welding and cutting systems.

After acquiring Wolf, Lincoln spent the next few years integrating Wolf's robots with its own welding systems before opening LAS in 2019. After starting with three robots, LAS has grown to 30 employees operating 18 robots.

Zelinski agreed with Lincoln's own assessment of where it stands in the industry. "I would feel pretty confident with the assertion that it is the biggest facility there is," he said. "When it comes to the ability to use robots to melt wire and build big, big things like big tools or big casting replacements, Lincoln Electric is not unique, but no one would dispute that they're a leader in this area," he said.

LAS doesn't compete with firms that build castings in high volumes to mass produce things like bronze plaques, firearms components or fire hydrants.

Instead, its market is for low-volume castings, including the custom making of those single pieces that may be needed quickly as replacement parts for old equipment that is still in service.

Mark Douglass, LAS's business development manager, said that fast turnaround time can be critical to a customer who has to shut down a production line because it needs a replacement part whose maker is long out of business.

"If a customer says, 'I need that part of the factory to be back on line in four weeks,' the casting could take 10 weeks (to make and ship from Asia)," Douglass said. "So, they can get it now in less than a week."

The LAS product also could be cheaper, since to create a part in the traditional way, a mold or casting has to be made first, before the piece can be created.

Douglass said that another advantage additive manufacturing has on traditional methods is that cast pieces often have excess material that needs to be trimmed away. It gets expensive when that scrap is stainless steel, titanium or another expensive material. WAAM builds up a part without extra material.

"So if you've got a big steel or iron machine part, the chance to just 3D print that using a robot, rather than going through all the steps that a foundry would require, that's very attractive," Zelinski said.

Zelinski said that very often, large castings come from overseas, and that raises supply chain issues, which have been heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"If you could change your supply chain now, so that they're 3D printing that in Cleveland, instead of it crossing an ocean, that's huge," he said. "That's not just COVID, but just the long-term supply chain issues. So, long-term, COVID will probably help additive manufacturing."

Lincoln is thinking the same way. Douglass said Lincoln envisions building regional printing centers around the United States and the world.

"Look at the supply chain issues," he said. "Do we want to be printing up a part in Cleveland that (gets sent) to Singapore? No. We'll digitally send the (computer design) file to Singapore and you can print the same part there, because they'll have the same equipment, same wire."

Zelinski said that, eventually, the business could change as manufacturers see the opportunity to do this work themselves. But that's not necessarily a bad thing for Lincoln, since it has the welding equipment, the robots and the software.

"The way forward would be, manufacturers like Caterpillar (Inc.) or John Deere (& Co.) or appliance makers or automakers in some cases, find more and more applications for this and start buying some of these robotic systems from Lincoln Electric, and take (the work) in-house," Zelinski said.

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