ValCUN, the Belgian metal AM company behind Molten Metal Deposition (MMD), has detailed Remus, an independent printhead first unveiled in late 2025 that moves its aluminum wire-extrusion process out of a fixed build chamber and onto robotic arms and gantry systems.
MMD was first commercialized in 2023 with the Minerva 3D printer, a self-contained system with a 125mm heated build plate that melts off-the-shelf aluminum wire and deposits it layer by layer, bonding without post-print heat treatment. ValCUN says Minerva has printed overhangs past 70 degrees and 100mm unsupported bridges, and an ESA study found it could print upside down. But the company says taller parts run into a real limit: the deposition point moves farther from the plate’s heat source as height increases, and simply scaling up the heated envelope means uniformly holding a larger surface at 500°C while managing thermal expansion.
Remus solves this differently. A compact plasma source sits just ahead of the deposition nozzle, preheating the surface and stripping oxide right where material lands, rather than heating the whole build volume. ValCUN says this means thermal management “does not need to increase together with the dimensions of the component.” The printhead adds volumetric extrusion control, higher heating power, and faster wire feeding, and runs on Al-6000 and Al-7000 series alloys with its own controller and software.
ValCUN points to three use cases: large aluminum fan blades printed with non-planar toolpaths (claiming roughly 30% lower fan energy losses, which it translates to about €2.5 million annually at data-center scale), field-deployable repair and spare-parts cells for defense and other sectors with heavy logistics, and hybrid manufacturing that adds MMD features onto machined or cast parts.
No price, build volume, deposition rate, or shipping date has been published for Remus.