Beehive Industries Adds Two Nikon NXG 600E Systems to Defense Engine Production Line
Hardware
Originally reported by 3DPrint.com
Beehive Industries, the Cincinnati-based developer of compact jet engines for drones and missiles, has purchased two Nikon NXG 600E metal 3D printers, adding to a fleet expansion that now includes a $50 million EOS order for 30 M4 ONYX systems. The company, led by former GE executive Mohammad Ehteshami, is scaling toward a stated target of 8,000 engines per year under a SOSSEC consortium contract initially valued at $29 million. The NXG 600E, one of the largest production LPBF systems on the market, complements Beehive’s existing EOS machines by offering a larger build envelope for consolidating bigger engine components or running higher batch volumes. The firm has also acquired two local machine shops, Planet Products and Able Tool, to handle post-processing and finishing in-house.
This purchase fits the defense-driven capacity surge pattern now reshaping North American metal AM. Beehive is not a service bureau or a technology developer; it is an end-user building production infrastructure for a specific, high-volume application - small turbine engines for the Pentagon’s new munitions and drone procurement strategy. The combination of a large-format Nikon system with a fleet of mid-format EOS machines signals a deliberate tiered-production approach: the NXG handles large or consolidated parts, while the EOS fleet runs the high-mix, qualification-heavy components. This mirrors the broader industry shift from machine theater to factory repeatability, where the real question is not which printer is fastest, but whether the entire workflow - printing, heat treatment, machining, inspection - can sustain program-scale output. Beehive’s vertical integration through machine shop acquisitions further reduces its reliance on external post-processing, a common bottleneck in defense AM programs.
From a practical standpoint, Beehive now faces the execution challenge of integrating two very different machine ecosystems into a single production line with shared materials, parameters, and quality documentation. The Nikon NXG 600E uses a different laser architecture and powder handling system than the EOS M4 ONYX, so Beehive must either qualify separate parameter sets for the same alloys or accept a narrower material portfolio on the Nikon side. For the broader AM industry, this is a useful test case of whether multi-vendor fleets can achieve the repeatability that single-vendor lock-in promises. The company’s ability to deliver on its 8,000-engine target will depend less on the number of machines and more on how quickly it can close the qualification loop for each printer-part combination.