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?

Germany — Orders received by the German metal forming technology manufacturers in the first quarter of 2021 were nine percent up on the previous year’s figure. Orders from Germany fell by twelve percent. Foreign orders, however, were 25 percent higher than in the previous year.

UK — Confidence amongst British SME manufacturers is at its highest level for two years according to the latest Manufacturing Barometer, carried out by SWMAS (the South West Manufacturing Advisory Service) and the Manufacturing Growth Programme (MGP).

Automation specialist Festo has been awarded the Gold Catalog Seal by Cadenas for its comprehensive digital 3D CAD product catalogue.

USA/ Europe - Milacron will be displaying its Advanced Plastics Processing Technologies (APPT) featuring Milacron, Ferromatik and Uniloy product branded injection, PET, blow and extrusion offerings, as well as Milacron’s product brands Mold-Masters, DME, Tirad and Cimcool at K 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The term Industry 4.0 has been used throughout the manufacturing sector since 2011 – the so-called fourth industrial revolution that promises manufacturing companies a profit through digital networking.

The combination of high-precision machine tools and special diamond cutters offers an economically and technically convincing alternative for machining dies for plastic parts with particularly high surface quality requirements such as optical lenses.

The new flat guiding stock by Meusburger promises better sliding properties thanks to DLC coating.

Germany — In aircraft construction, thousands of bores have to be drilled into composite components and material assemblies for riveted connections. Solid carbide drills with a diamond coating are usually used for this. However, these are unsuitable for special applications. What's the alternative?

Germany — The more difficult a material is to machine, the more robust, the tools for machining them have to be. However, the production and sharpening of hard tools, such as PCD tools, requires specially tailored machines. Anca has therefore developed an EDG machine suitable for this task.