How to adopt metal additive manufacturing: Experts give their advice!

While metal additive manufacturing technology has been maturing over the years, experiencing greater growth in comparison to plastic printing processes, one question seems to persist in the market: how can you successfully integrate metal additive manufacturing into your business? Metal 3D printing remains a heavy investment with higher machine and material costs than other technologies on the market. Moreover, for mass production it struggles to compete with other more traditional manufacturing techniques such as machining. Today, metal additive manufacturing is predominantly used to make functional prototypes, tooling components, spare parts or even to repair defective parts, nevertheless some sectors are starting to design end-use parts for series production. How can you be sure of the solution you choose and how can you integrate it efficiently into your production processes? We interviewed three experts to give you practical advice!

Bernd Martiné has been Expert for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies at GF Machining Solutions since 2013, and responsible for sales and applications of additive manufacturing in Germany. Today, he manages various industrial sectors that have invested in metal solutions, be it for tooling or the production of end-use parts. Our second expert is Benny Buller, CEO and founder of VELO3D, the pioneer of the support-less process for metal AM. Last but not least, Dr. Johannes Gumpinger is Advanced Manufacturing Process Engineer at the European Space Agency (ESA). He develops solutions to apply additive manufacturing as a standard design process for space missions.

Why consider investing in metal additive manufacturing?

Metal 3D printing technologies offer more complexity and geometrical freedom than traditional machining methods while also optimizing the total weight of the part thanks to adapted software, which allows using the necessary material only. ESA, which has been using metal additive manufacturing for more than 10 years, developed an interest in R&D, seeking to understand how to further develop the characterization of materials and the resistance of parts. Today, Dr. Johannes Gumpinger explains: “The high geometrical freedom can effectively be used for developing parts with increased performance, reduced mass, but also lower costs.”