Additive Manufacturing replaces numerous traditional manufacturing processes, facilitates the development of new products and business models and helps establish new value-added and supply chains. Are these claims about the possibilities of Additive Manufacturing real, and in which industries have they already been successfully implemented?

Supplier of polymer 3D printing solutions, Stratasys, introduced three new 3D printers that together address a large portion of the multibillion-euro market opportunity in additive manufacturing of end-use parts. The systems collectively are aimed at accelerating the shift from traditional to additive manufacturing for low-to-mid-volume production applications underserved by traditional manufacturing methods.

Germany — Under the brand names Infinam TI 3100 L and Infinam ST 6100 L, Evonik has launched two photopolymers for industrial 3D applications.

UK — Materials informatics (MI) is one of the most exciting areas in materials science. 3D printing has presented an obvious target for the use of materials informatics and is already producing some very promising results.

The 3D Systems additive manufacturing technology that is available in the UK from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG) has now been enhanced with the release of 3D Sprint 3.0.

Germany — At Franken Guss, individualized sword grips for fencing were manufactured additively using selective laser melting. Since this process enables the production of very small batch sizes, additive manufacturing allows the company to open up new industries.

The 3D printing industry is growing rapidly, and new printer manufacturers are entering the market nearly every day. To help you keep track, Ampower has created an overview of the most important technology providers in the fields of plastic and metal printing.

USA — Developer of quality assurance software for the commercial 3D metal printing industry, Sigma Labs, has been selected by Ermaksan Innovative Technologies to provide its In-Process Quality Assurance technology as a factory option on its Enavision 3D metal additive machines and will be integrated with the Materialise Control Platform (MCP).

Germany — Creaform has added a 3D scanner to its Academia educational solution suite. Ideal for smaller parts and additive manufacturing, this latest extension of the offer is to enable teachers, students, and researchers alike to effortlessly go from 3D scanning to 3D printing.

Germany — 3D printing of metals is currently changing many production processes in the industry. As a supplement and alternative to foundry technology, the 3DMP process offers an opportunity to manufacture even large workpieces economically in small numbers. This does not necessarily have to be seen as a competition — an additive manufacturing machine could be an ideal expansion of the manufacturing processes offered by foundries.