Southern Additive: Reshaping the Limits of Metal 3D Printing with Green Laser, Pioneering a New Era for High-Reflectivity and Refractory Material Forming

October 15, 2025 Hardware 177

Southern Additive is emerging as a leader in green laser metal 3D printing technology, effectively addressing challenges in processing highly reflective metals.

In recent years, green laser (with a wavelength typically in the range of ≈510–560 nm), as a form of laser radiation characterized by short wavelength and high absorption rate, has gradually gained attention in metal additive manufacturing. Compared to near-infrared lasers, green laser enhances energy absorption efficiency for highly reflective metals, improves melt pool stability, and reduces reflection risks, making it a powerful solution for addressing the challenges of printing highly reflective metals.

Many domestic and international manufacturers have begun adopting the green laser metal 3D printing technological approach. Among them, Southern Additive Technology Co., Ltd., with its breakthroughs in green laser metal printing technology, is emerging as a leading force in the field of short-wavelength laser printing, both in China and globally.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southern Fan Co., Ltd. (Stock Code: 300004), Southern Additive leverages its parent company's industrial foundation and capital strength to continuously deepen its expertise in the metal additive manufacturing technology system. It has now established dual advantages in both technology and industrialization within the field of printing highly reflective and refractory metals.

New Possibilities Unleashed by Green Light: The Perfect Combination of Short Wavelength and High Energy Density

In the field of metal 3D printing (additive manufacturing), most equipment traditionally uses near-infrared (NIR, with wavelengths such as 1064 nm or 1070 nm) lasers as the energy source for melting metal powder layer by layer. Although this approach is relatively mature, it faces challenges like low absorption efficiency, high reflective loss, unstable melt pools, and significant risks of forming defects when processing highly reflective metals (such as copper, silver, gold) or extremely thin-walled structures. The 532nm short-wavelength green laser adopted by Southern Additive can increase the absorption rate on the surface of highly reflective materials to approximately ten times that of infrared light, significantly improving energy utilization and forming quality.

Advantages of Green Laser Printing Technology

The key to green laser technology lies in simultaneously balancing high power, high beam quality, and high absorption rate. Through its self-developed optical system and beam shaping module, Southern Additive enables the green laser to achieve high energy density output under conditions of a very small spot size (0.06–0.1mm), thereby obtaining excellent printing fineness and surface quality.

This innovation not only addresses pain points in traditional red laser printing, such as susceptibility to optical component damage and severe spatter pollution, but also allows Southern Additive to achieve high-precision printing with a wider process window. Especially for precious metal materials like copper, gold, and platinum, the process stability and forming efficiency of green laser printing significantly lead domestic and international peers.

A New Tool for Printing Highly Reflective Metals: Breakthroughs in Copper-Based Materials for Multiple Scenarios

Copper, a typical highly reflective material, possesses excellent thermal and electrical conductivity and is widely used in aerospace, automotive, semiconductor heat dissipation, and other fields. However, its high reflectivity causes traditional laser printing to easily reflect energy and burn optical components. Southern Additive's green laser technology has achieved substantial breakthroughs in this area.

Material Characteristics of Copper-Based Materials

Taking aerospace engine combustion chambers and thrust chambers as examples, Southern Additive's green laser SLM printing enables complex internal flow channels and conformal cooling structure designs, improving performance and significantly shortening manufacturing cycles. Estimates indicate a single-part cost reduction of 30%–50%, and testing collaborations have been established with several domestic commercial aerospace companies such as Landspace, Space Tianbing, and Deep Blue Aerospace.

Aerospace Application Direction – Copper-Based Materials

In the new energy vehicle sector, the pure copper IGBT散热底板 (thermal baseplate) developed by Southern Additive has entered the testing phase with leading companies like BYD, Huawei, and Xiaomi. It improves heat dissipation efficiency by 40% under the same installation space, with projected annual orders potentially reaching the hundreds of millions of yuan level.

Furthermore, in the manufacturing of high thermal conductivity components like liquid cooling plates, induction coils, and condenser radiators, green laser printing makes the design of micro-channel lattice structures possible. The realization of complex internal cavity structures, such as TPMS (Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces), increases liquid cooling efficiency by over 35%, becoming a new direction for AI heat dissipation and energy storage equipment manufacturing.

Beyond Copper and Aluminum: Extending to Refractory Metals like Tungsten, Molybdenum, and Tantalum

The high absorption rate and high energy density characteristics of green laser printing also give Southern Additive inherent advantages in printing refractory metals like tungsten, molybdenum, and tantalum. These materials are in high demand in aero-engines, military armor, nuclear energy equipment, and medical fields, yet are extremely difficult to process traditionally. Through its short-wavelength laser and multi-wavelength composite technology roadmap, Southern Additive significantly improves melt pool stability and density for these materials, providing a new path for the localization of high-temperature structural components.

Estimates suggest the current market size for refractory metal printing has already reached several billion yuan. With the expansion of civilian and new energy industries, the future market is expected to break into the hundred-billion-yuan level. Southern Additive's green light process is becoming a key technological pillar supporting this growth curve.

From Manufacturing to Intelligent Manufacturing: A Complete Industrial Chain and Quality System

Southern Additive currently possesses over 60 printing equipment units, including 20 metal SLM machines, 10 green laser SLM machines, and boasts a comprehensive quality management and inspection system. From powder testing, metallographic analysis, spectral composition detection, to coordinate measuring machine dimensional inspection and X-ray non-destructive testing, it has formed a closed-loop control capability covering materials — process — inspection — verification.

In its intelligent manufacturing base in Nanhai, Foshan, Southern Additive has completed the first phase of a 3,000-square-meter production line. A second-phase new plant of 15,000 square meters is expected to commence operation within the year. This signifies that its green laser printing capacity will enter a scaling stage, providing stable supply capacity for the domestic highly reflective metal 3D printing industry.

Industry Perspective: The "Green Laser Revolution" Driven by Southern Additive

Nanjixiong believes that Southern Additive's breakthrough in green laser technology is not merely an iteration of equipment parameters but a leap in manufacturing philosophy. In the past, the core of metal 3D printing was "what can be printed"; the maturation of green laser printing technology is shifting the industry's focus to "how well it can be printed."

In the new industrial environment where performance requirements for heat dissipation, electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance, and anti-magnetism are increasingly stringent, green laser 3D printing significantly enhances the design freedom and manufacturing feasibility for highly reflective and refractory metals. This not only broadens the material boundaries of additive manufacturing but also marks a Chinese enterprise's transition from "catching up" to "leading" in the short-wavelength laser field.

With the rapid rise of commercial aerospace, new energy vehicles, semiconductor heat dissipation, and high-end manufacturing industries, green laser metal 3D printing is poised to become one of the most promising manufacturing technologies in the next decade. Southern Additive Technology Co., Ltd., through its continuous R&D accumulation and industrial implementation capabilities, is injecting "green light" momentum into China's additive manufacturing sector.