Episode 98 of the DC Additive Pros news series. Written for makers and for the engineering buyers who have to sign the PO.
Meltio, the Spanish company behind wire-laser metal 3D printing, announced this month that its Robot Cell is now being assembled in the United States for customers across the Americas. The machine is not new. What changed is where it gets built. Underneath the headline sits a story about repair, reverse engineering, and a set of custom tailpipes for a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren made the same way we make parts every week in Rockville, Maryland, just in a different material.
What Meltio actually announced
According to 3D Printing Industry, the US-assembled Robot Cell is a turnkey directed energy deposition (DED) system. Inside a Class 1 laser-safe enclosure you get a 6-axis ABB robot arm, a 2-axis positioner rated to 500 kg, Meltio's dual-wire print head and Engine Blue laser, and the Meltio Space slicer. The cell needs only power and argon at 2 to 5 bar to start, prints inside a roughly 1,000 mm diameter by 800 mm tall envelope, and weighs 4,000 to 5,000 kg.
Meltio built the US program with FORCE Automation Inc., a US integrator already pairing Meltio heads with ABB arms. The stated reason is simple: importing a complete cell from Spain meant shipping and customs delays, and local assembly cuts both. Fabbaloo adds the part Meltio did not say out loud: tariffs have been unpredictable, and some government buyers can only purchase equipment that is made or assembled domestically. A US-assembled cell opens those doors.
The tailpipe story is the real headline
Buried in the announcement are three customer cases, and the first one is worth reading twice. Swedish exhaust maker Ferrita used a Meltio Robot Cell to produce four custom stainless steel tailpipes for a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. Their workflow was 3D scanning, then CAD, then wire-laser deposition. Meltio reports the approach cut production time and cost by roughly 50 percent compared with Ferrita's previous process.
Read that workflow again: scan, model, build. There was no factory drawing to download. Someone put a scanner on the existing geometry, turned the point cloud into a real solid model, and then manufactured from that model. That is reverse engineering, and it is the exact sequence we run on our 3D scanning and reverse engineering service. Our output ends up in PEEK, ULTEM, ABS, or nylon rather than stainless wire, but the front half of the job is identical.
The other two cases point the same direction. Eurobearings repairs large industrial components with a Meltio head on a gantry-mounted robot, and Meltio says lead times dropped 30 to 50 percent. Italian forging house Cavaletto Mario S.p.A. moved die and punch repair from manual electrode welding to robotic deposition and reports a 67 percent cost reduction versus hand welding. None of that is "print a cool bracket." All of it is "keep the machine running."
I have a discontinued part and no drawings. Can someone scan it and remake it?
Yes. A 3D scanning and reverse engineering shop can capture the worn or broken part, rebuild it as a clean CAD model, correct the wear, and produce a new one, and that is the same scan-to-build workflow Ferrita used for its SLR McLaren tailpipes. The important word is "rebuild." A raw scan is a mesh with every dent and gouge included. Useful reverse engineering means an engineer restores the original fillets and bores and hands you a parametric model you can edit later. We scan, model, print a fit-check version you can confirm on the machine, then produce the final part. You also get the CAD file, which is the piece most shops forget to give you.
My part is metal. Can a polymer 3D printing shop still help me?
Often, yes: the scanning, modeling, and fit-check stages are material-agnostic, and a surprising number of "metal" parts can be replaced in a high-temperature polymer like PEEK or ULTEM when the original was metal only because that was what the factory had on hand. Brackets, guides, covers, cable carriers, jigs, and fixtures are frequent candidates. When the part truly must be metal, we still add value by delivering a verified CAD model and a printed fit-check part you can hand to a machine shop or a DED service, so the expensive step happens once. Details on our high-temp work are on the PEEK and ULTEM 3D printing service page.
Why "assembled in the USA" matters to a small buyer
You are probably not buying a five-ton robot cell, but the reasoning applies at every scale. Shorter shipping lanes, fewer customs surprises, and a supplier in your own time zone all shrink the gap between "we need this part" and "the part is on the bench." That is the premise of our build and ship process: parts printed and inspected in Maryland, shipped domestically, no minimum order.
To be clear, we are a polymer shop and we do not run a wire-laser cell. Questions about a part, or a scanner or filament you would like us to put through real jobs and review here, go to info@dcadditivepros.com.
Frequently asked questions
I have one broken machine part and no CAD file. How does 3D scanning and reverse engineering work?
We scan the part, rebuild it as an editable CAD model that corrects for wear, print a fit-check version, then produce the final part. You receive the part and the CAD file.
Can a 3D printed PEEK or ULTEM part replace a metal part on my equipment?
Sometimes. Low-load brackets, guides, covers, and fixtures are common swaps. Highly loaded or high-heat parts may still need metal, and we will tell you which is which before you spend money.
What is directed energy deposition and is it something a small shop can order?
DED melts metal wire or powder with a laser as a robot lays it down, and it is used for repair and large parts. It is a service you order from a metal specialist, not something a small shop runs in-house, and a verified CAD model is what you bring to them.
Do I need a minimum order to get a replacement part 3D printed in the USA?
No. We build single parts to order in Rockville, Maryland, and ship domestically.
Sources: 3D Printing Industry, "Meltio launches U.S.-assembled Robot Cell for industrial metal 3D printing," September 10, 2026; Fabbaloo, "Why 3D Printer Manufacturers Like Meltio Are Moving Production to the US," September 11, 2026. Customer results are as reported by Meltio.