EOS Expands 3D Printer Production with New Plant

Family-owned companies are often assumed to be small operations, but that’s not the case with EOS. The German company is an expansive one, with offices and distributors spanning multiple continents, and it always has growth on its mind. Today, the industrial 3D printing leader announced that it has expanded its production capacity and relocated its system manufacturing facilities to Maisach-Gerlinden, just west of Munich. The move brings the system manufacturing facilities closer to the company’s headquarters in Krailling, and gives EOS a larger manufacturing space.

The new facility measures 9,000 square meters, and allows EOS to boost its production capacity to about 1,000 new systems per year. The move to an expanded space was necessary as the demand grows for EOS’ additive manufacturing systems, which it is now producing on an industrial scale. The space itself features a flexible design that allows EOS to respond and adapt to the changing requirements of production, customers, and markets on short notice.

“Our technology is the right choice for high-quality series manufacturing applications,” said Nikolai Zaepernick, Senior Vice President Central Europe at EOS. “Industrial 3D printing has arrived in manufacturing. We installed around 1,000 systems in the first ten years of our existence as a company, this number has increased significantly, particularly during the last two years. We now have an installed base of around 3,000 systems worldwide. Over the next few years we also expect to see a further significant demand for our technology. Within the scope of digital transformation, as industrial 3D printing is one of the main driving forces taking us towards the digital factory of the future. Our technology is therefore one of the key factors to smart manufacturing scenarios of the future and that’s why we recommend companies to get closely involved with additive technologies right now.”

EOS saw a big change last year when it welcomed a new CEO, Dr. Adrian Keppler, but regardless of who is at the helm, the company maintains a priority of quality in all things, including materials, processes and systems. This especially holds true for markets such as aerospace, automotive and medical technology, in which manufacturers depend on validated systems and processes. Quality is not a luxury in these sectors, it’s an absolute necessity for safety, and EOS supports the qualification of its technology at its customers’ premises. This then shortens the time to market for additively manufactured products.

Whenever a customer buys an additive manufacturing system from EOS, factory acceptance tests (FATs) are carried out. At the new manufacturing facility, customers also have the opportunity to get involved in the acceptance tests of new systems. In addition to the machine qualification EOS always performs, customers can request to have test jobs of specific parts that they want to build at a later date.

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[Images provided by EOS]