Liebherr-Aerospace adds Renishaw RenAM 500Q at Campsas for nickel/aluminum AM production

Liebherr-Aerospace has installed a Renishaw RenAM 500Q metal Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) system at its Campsas, France facility, expanding its production capacity for aerospace air management components. The quad-laser machine, equipped with four 500 W lasers capable of addressing the entire powder bed simultaneously, achieves build rates up to 150 cm³/hour and includes automatic powder recycling and patented vacuum atmosphere preparation. Liebherr-Aerospace, headquartered in Toulouse, has been active in additive manufacturing since 2010, with Campsas specializing in nickel-based and aluminum alloys for heat transfer equipment, valves, and turbomachinery, while its Lindenberg, Germany site focuses on R&D for titanium landing gear and hydraulic components.

This investment is a textbook case of the aerospace qualification grind: Liebherr is not experimenting with AM but deepening an established production footprint. The RenAM 500Q’s multi-laser architecture directly addresses the throughput bottleneck that has historically limited PBF-LB adoption in serial aerospace production. By choosing a machine with integrated powder recycling and reduced operator intervention, Liebherr signals that its evaluation phase is complete and that operational economics—not just technical capability—now drive equipment decisions. This aligns with the broader industry shift where materials discipline and repeatable factory output matter more than raw machine specs. The Campsas site’s focus on nickel and aluminum alloys for air management systems places this expansion squarely in the industrial-tooling and aerospace verticals, where qualification cycles are long but program lock-in provides durable revenue.

For the AM industry, this is a quiet but meaningful signal: a Tier 1 aerospace supplier is scaling PBF-LB capacity without fanfare, which is precisely the maturity signal the sector needs. Liebherr’s next challenge is to demonstrate that the RenAM 500Q can maintain first-pass yield rates across production batches, not just in R&D runs. Competitors like EOS and SLM Solutions will note that Renishaw’s quad-laser architecture is gaining traction in qualified aerospace environments, but the real test is whether Liebherr can replicate this at its Lindenberg site for titanium applications. The news is proportional: a single machine addition, not a fleet deployment, but one that reinforces the pattern where AM success in aerospace becomes infrastructure rather than marketing.