The industrialization of additive manufacturing

Our world is constantly facing a wide variety of social challenges — currently, issues such as climate change, security, demographic change, and resource conservation are of significant importance and show an acute need for action. Among other things, disruptive technologies are needed to tackle such problems. Additive manufacturing (AM) is regarded as the ‘game changer/paradigm shift’ technology for the digital, automated production of the future — as the key enabler of ‘Production 2.0’. This sustainable and resilient technology enables new paths to innovative solutions across all industries through a high degree of individualization (mass customization) and great design freedom (‘manufacture for design’ instead of ‘design for manufacture‘). For example, internally cooled turbine blades for H₂-capable gas turbines, lightweight structures for more efficient aircraft or patient-specific implants are only made possible by AM. In this way, AM makes an important contribution to solving the social challenges mentioned above now it is necessary to transfer this technology to board industrial use.