Link3D and ACAM Aachen Center for Additive Manufacturing Partnering Up to Increase 3D Printing Adoption Across Europe

Link3D, which provides execution workflow software to the additive manufacturing industry, has had a pretty busy year. In between facilitating biomedical 3D printing for a case study and integrating blockchain and industrial 3D printing, the company, based in New York City, also found time to launch a new Production Planning System for AM workflows. Now, Link3D is at the TCT Show in Birmingham with another announcement – it’s partnering with the ACAM Aachen Center for Additive Manufacturing, which is associated with RWTH Aachen Campus and its Fraunhofer Institutes for Laser and Production Technology.

Germany-based ACAM is at the center of metal 3D printing, surrounded by over 100 researchers and 25 industry partners working to industrialize 3D printing in both consortial and bilateral projects along the process chain. That’s why it’s the perfect partner for Link3D, as the two will work together to push for more widespread adoption of the technology in Europe.

“It’s an honor to be collaborating with an organization like ACAM and Fraunhofer as they have an extensive knowledge and experience around additive manufacturing,” said Shane Fox, the CEO of Link3D. “We believe this collaboration will introduce new technologies that the industry has never seen.”

Link3D is one of the leading providers of AMES & Additive Workflow software, which streamlines the internal and external AM production for OEMs. The software helps maximize machine utilization rates, increase order turnaround time, and makes it easy for engineers to access the additive supply chain. Through this new partnership, the company will be working directly with ACAM to build a showroom that will offer real-time demonstrations of its software across the facilities of ACAM’s research partners, including the RWTH Aachen University Chair for Digital Additive Production DAP.

That’s why the partnership is so important – by applying this technology to the current manufacturing processes at these research facilities, Link3D and ACAM will enable the creation of even more advanced prototyping and series production.

“Aachen is the cradle of laser-based metal AM technologies – we won’t forget this heritage – but a large part of the AM future will be decided in the digital world. We will support this with the formation of a ‘digital additive enterprise’, where customers can holistically experience the disruptive power of AM,” said Johannes Schleifenbaum, the Managing Partner of ACAM Aachen Center for Additive Manufacturing GmbH. “We are very glad that Link3D will be at our side on this journey!”

Through the partnership, a training center will also be introduced, which will hep train the employees of OEMs and 3D printing service bureaus, including account managers, application engineers, machine operators, and supply chain managers, to use Link3D’s software to optimize additive operations, as well as streamline tasks that are data-intensive to lower overhead costs, increase assets, save time, and improve internal operations.

L-R: Tobias Stittgen, Senior Advisor Sales and Technology at ACAM; Renaud Vasseur, VP of Business Development & Sales at Link3D; Janet Kar, Chief Operations Officer at Link3D; Stephan Ziegler, Chief Engineer at RWTH Aachen Digital Additive Production DAP

These same 3D printing service bureaus and OEMs will also be able to see live demonstrations of a fully connected AM ecosystem, thanks to the new partnership. ACAM invitees will be able to book meetings around the demonstrations in order to evaluate and determine just how to connect their own AM ecosystems. Then, they will be able to complete such tasks as administering order logistics and collecting customer feedback, centralizing their order submission processes, and using data analytics to improve internal operations.

By taking advantage of the partnership’s new showroom, it will also be possible to manage post processing and quality assurance, optimize the production planning and scheduling across multiple 3D printers, and streamline the quoting and cost tracking for orders.

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