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Swedish based metal 3D printing company Freemelt has received a prototype order from an unnamed defense company with operations in Sweden. The order is part of an agreement to study whether additive manufacturing (AM) can be used to improve the performance of refractory metal components for defense applications, not just produce them. Freemelt will produce several part geometries for testing and evaluation using its Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (E-PBF) technology.
Freemelt says the agreement reflects growing interest in AM for critical industrial and defense-related applications. It comes one month after the company secured a tungsten order for fusion energy research.
Scope of the Feasibility Study
The study will assess how AM can support the development and future production of qualified refractory metal parts for selected defense uses, where material performance, manufacturing quality, and reliability are critical requirements.
“This feasibility study goes beyond evaluating whether existing components can be produced using additive manufacturing. It allows us to explore how digital design, advanced materials and additive manufacturing can be combined to optimise component performance, shorten development cycles and support scalable and resilient production of qualified components for demanding defense applications,” says Daniel Gidlund, CEO of Freemelt.
Earlier Tungsten Order for Fusion Research
In September, Freemelt received a large volume order from Fusion for Energy to produce tungsten components for a fusion energy research facility.
According to Freemelt, that order demonstrates its ability to support customers from early-stage design and process development through industrialization to scalable manufacturing of qualified refractory metal components.
Freemelt operates two divisions. Production Systems provides E-PBF application development and aftermarket services to customers building their own in-house metal AM capacity.
The Manufacturing division produces metal components, covering design, process development, qualification, inspection, and industrial delivery for customers in MedTech, defense, fusion, and other industrial sectors. The company says its goal is to build a more recurring business while establishing a European platform for metal AM.
Refractory Metal AM Shifts Toward Performance and Qualification
Freemelt’s feasibility study asks two questions: whether redesigned refractory metal parts can deliver improved performance in defense applications, and whether they can be produced to a qualified standard. That puts component design and production readiness at the center of the work, alongside basic printability.
HAMR Industries, a provider of scientific research and engineering services, and Freemelt showed tungsten penetrator rounds at MILAM 2025. The rounds were printed on a Freemelt ONE E-PBF system and designed for high-velocity impact applications. The aim was to push past the limits of conventional tungsten manufacturing by producing complex geometries optimized for performance. That work shares the new study’s focus on performance-driven refractory metal parts for defense.
Production readiness poses a separate challenge. America Makes and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) have awarded $6 million under the PADAM 2.0 program to four teams developing high-temperature refractory alloys for AM. The program targets three obstacles to production: incomplete material property data, process variability, and fragile supply chains. As a measure of the timeline involved, Elmet Technologies spent eight years developing printing parameters for C103, a niobium-based alloy, on a single 3D Systems platform before targeting production. PADAM 2.0 shares Freemelt’s goal of qualified refractory metal parts for defense, but it works on the alloys and supply chains underneath that goal, while Freemelt’s study starts at the component level.
Freemelt’s study sits between these two efforts. It pairs design-led refractory metal parts with the testing and evaluation that a path to qualified production requires.
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Featured image shows Freemelt’s company logo. Image via Freemelt.
