Düsseldorf 2016: Additive Manufacturing is Changing Business Models Everywhere

While many who visited the historical world of Düsseldorf for this year’s Inside 3D Printing event in their free time may have enjoyed German nightlife, culture, and epic beer outside the conference, within they discovered a great deal regarding how additive manufacturing has already created a stunning new world of its own, relevant to businesses of all sizes. Within the walls of Inside 3D Printing, which was also coordinated with METAV 2016 from February 24-25th, attendees were part of the most important specialist conference regarding 3D printing.

Over 1,400 visitors from 52 countries made their way to Germany to participate in 60 sessions within three tracks, network, and check out a wide range of booths and displays. As part of the newly conceived METAV conference–the international trade fair for technologies in metal processing–it was no surprise to find that 3D printing in metal was a central discussion at the show, which was held at Düsseldorf trade fair grounds. METAV had over 35,000 professional visitors and all were able to visit Inside 3D Printing as well, to include its new ‘Additive Manufacturing Area,’ an exhibition area, also offering a forum on additive manufacturing processes.

The central theme was how 3D printing is changing so many industries and allowing for manufacturers to explore new ways of production from mechanical engineering and the automobile industry to that of electronics, robotics, and most definitely areas like medicine and architecture as well.

The keynote speaker was Jeff DeGrange, Chief Operating Officer at Impossible Objects, speaking on the changes 3D printing is making on a global level in so many of these different sectors, and the conference itself with so many sponsors and exhibitors worked as a prime example of how very abundant opportunities are, with an infinite future of new applications still to be discovered and created.

DeGrange was certainly appropriate for the speaking job as he and his company have been quite involved in not just helping to transform the world with 3D printing, but transforming 3D printing itself with their concept of taking 3D prints directly into use rather than just prototyping. We’ve followed his company for years now, as they are famous for using composite materials, such as Kevlar, carbon fiber, and fiberglass.

It was a very exciting time also for Concept Lasers from Oberfranken, who were awarded the annual International Additive Manufacturing Award (IAMA), rising to the top of the competition over 15 other companies presenting. Their monitoring system is another technology that contributes to the evolution of 3D printing in regards to quality assurance, as they are able to evaluate items while they are being manufactured individually, allowing for the elimination of other product quality tests.

Dr. Eric Klemp

“Inside 3D Printing covers a wide range. Manufacturers and users not only displayed fantastic application examples for additive manufacturing with metal, plastic, carbon fiber, and ceramics. It went beyond this with the implementation of additive manufacturing in Industry 4.0, standardizations, market trends, investment strategies and legal questions such as product protection,” said Dr. Eric Klemp, Commercial Director of the Direct Manufacturing Research Center (DMRC) of the University Paderborn, and program coordinator of the conference.

“Above all, the biggest takeaway was: The world is full of new business models thanks to 3D printing.”

If you had the good fortune to attend this conference, you were hobnobbing with representatives from companies like:

• BMW
• Deutsche Post
• Evonik
• ThyssenKrupp
• General Electric
• Mitsubishi
• Philips
• Saint-Gobain
• Xerox

“Noticeable this year was that both top managers, who are responsible for the strategic decisions at large companies, as well as product managers, who were interested in the diverse product lines were in attendance in large numbers at the Inside 3D Printing,” said Matthew Finlay, CEO of the global events producer Rising Media. “This shows just how strong the interest in additive manufacturing methods continues to rise in the entire producing industry.”

Inside 3D Printing, by Rising Media, is meant to serve as a dynamic forum for professional exchange regarding additive manufacturing methods. Since its premiere in New York in 2013, Inside 3D Printing has been held internationally in other cities such as Tokyo, Singapore, São Paulo, Mumbai, and Shanghai. This is an important and exciting forum for those within the industry as the conferences offer sessions regarding business opportunities, case examples, and the current state of research on the technology.

The target audience for Inside 3D Printing is made up of industry experts, researchers, service providers, manufacturers, merchants, and investors, as well as experts from other, varied industries who want to expand their knowledge about the professional use of 3D printing technologies.

Rising Media is a media company and global events producer excelling in the organization and marketing of Internet and technology-related events and conferences. Events include Data Driven Business Berlin, eMetrics Summit, Conversion Conference, Search Marketing Expo, Predictive Analytics World, Text Analytics World, Content Marketing Conference, Affiliate Management Days, Web Effectiveness Conference, AllFacebook Marketing Conference, Email Innovations Summit, Digital Analytics Hub, Inside 3D Printing, Inside Bitcoins and Building Business Capability in the USA, Brazil, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia. Rising Media events offer participants high-quality knowledge that they can use in day-to-day business for increasing their effectiveness and implementing their findings.  

What do you think of the updates from this conference? Share in the Inside 3D Printing Düsseldorf forum over at 3DPB.com.