124-year-old Lincoln Electric dives into additive

At the AeroDef conference in Long Beach, Calif., Lincoln Electric’s Mark Douglass talks about acquiring Baker Industries, experimenting in additive manufacturing—and planning to specialize in large-format metal AM: parts that are larger than a microwave. AM is a significant “growth leg” in the 124-year-old firm’s just-hatched 2025 plan, he noted. Among the concrete examples in AM his firm can point to already: Oakridge National Labs now has three of Lincoln’s robotic AM systems for producing large metal parts. Lincoln is set to this year open a 3D printing facility in Cleveland.