In our most recent cover interview, Nikon SLM Solutions CEO Sam O'Leary recalled the moment Nikon's $622 million acquisition deal of the German metal additive manufacturing (AM) company came about. It was past midnight, O'Leary was sat at his desk and sipping a well-earned drink, and on the other end of a video call, camera tactically turned off, was Nikon Advanced Manufacturing (Nikon AM) CEO Hamid Zarringhalam.
Zarringhalam's version is a little different.
"I had Covid," he tells TCT. "I get this call from Sam and we start talking about the possibility. So maybe he was having a glass of wine - I was just really trying hard not to cough in that conversation!"
Covid fever dream or not, Zarringhalam is certain that AM is a space Nikon needs to be in.
Since 2019, the Japanese optics technology giant's digital manufacturing business has acquired a California AM service provider, now re-purposed and branded as Nikon AM Synergy, as well as built and inaugurated the state-of-the-art ultra-secure Nikon AM Technology Center in Long Beach, CA, opened its AM Technology Center in Gyoda, Japan, among other investments, and introduced a Direct Energy Deposition (DED) printer and 3D scanner duo for turbine blade repair applications.
"Nikon's name is synonymous with trust. And that trust is earned over many, many, many years. When we say something, it means we're going to do it."
Nikon's interest in metal AM began to formulate around 10 years ago, starting with skunkworks projects that were focused on DED. At TCT Japan in 2018, the company teased its AM capabilities in the form of an Optical Processing Machine, which offered laser marking, welding, etching and laser deposition in one system. While there were no plans to announce or launch this particular machine to the wider world, a year later, Nikon took the decision to begin scaling its digital manufacturing business. Metal AM, particularly laser powder bed fusion, seemed like a natural fit.
