EOS Looks Back at a Good Year and Introduces a New 3D Printer

When it gets to be this late in the year, especially as the holidays approach, most people start looking back at the previous year and assessing what went well and what didn’t go so well. That’s true for companies as well, and as EOS prepares for formnext and looks back on 2017, it’s been overall a very positive year.

Right now, EOS has customers in 65 different countries, and the number of installed EOS 3D printing systems worldwide has risen to about 3,000, of which approximately 51% are polymer and 49% are metal. 94 of those have been EOS M 4-series systems, as metal 3D printing for serial applications continues to rise. The company increased its turnover by 10 percent over the previous fiscal year 2015/2016 to an expected €345 million, and over that period delivered around 450 systems across the globe.

EOS is not only growing financially but physically, as its facilities continue to become larger to make room for the company’s spreading operations. This summer, EOS moved production and training as well as parts of its warehouse, quality and laboratories into a new 9,000-square-meter facility in Maisach, near Krailling, Germany. The company’s facilities in France and Singapore also grew, as did its overall workforce, which expanded by 200 over the last year. EOS now employs about 1,200 people across the world, including application engineers and 120 service engineers.

At formnext, EOS will present its newest polymer 3D printing system, the EOS P 500. The system is the latest step in the industry-wide push toward production instead of just prototyping for plastic 3D printing. The highly productive machine is automation-ready and can print with plastics that require temperatures of up to 300ºC. It is aimed at customers who want to use 3D printing to mass produce parts with engineering-level quality.

“The AM market is currently experiencing enormous change as it continues to develop into a mainstream market leveraging a well-established technology,” said Dr. Adrian Keppler, who became EOS GmbH’s Speaker of the Corporate Management and CEO in June.

“As a result, our customers are changing too. AM becomes part of existing production environment and will play a key role in the digitalization of manufacturing. Here, technology integration will be key over the coming years. EOS additive manufacturing offers the key technology for advanced industrial production. Customers can rely on our profound and long-term experience, the largest installed system base in the market, our independence and our service and broadest consulting portfolio on the market.”

Formnext attendees who visit EOS will have the opportunity to learn about what is required for a company to succeed with 3D printing. EOS breaks down the process of implementing additive manufacturing into four steps:

1. Screen the parts portfolio and identify the right applications for additive manufacturing
2. Start designing for additive manufacturing, go through design iterations and develop the application
3. Ramp up additive manufacturing production
4. Certify and scale up a highly efficient additive manufacturing production chain

“From more than 300 consulting project we learned that nearly all companies implementing additive manufacturing go through four transformational stages,” said Güngör Kara, Director of Global Application & Consulting. “With each phase of their development, companies establish more knowledge and technological maturity, but at the same time also face different challenges. We help customers overcome these challenges to gain momentum on their journey to become an additive manufacturing champion.”

Formnext is taking place in Frankfurt, Germany from November 14th to the 17th, and 3DPrint.com will be on the scene all week. EOS will be in Hall 3.1, Booth G50.

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[Images: EOS]