Voestalpine Focuses on Expanding Additive Manufacturing Business Particularly in Asia

Austrian company voestalpine is a leading technology and capital goods group with expertise in materials and processing. It offers products and system solutions using steel and other metals, and acts as a partner to the automotive and consumer goods industries in Europe and the aerospace, oil and gas industries worldwide. The High Performance Metals division of the company has been focusing on additive manufacturing for several years, ramping up its efforts with the construction of the voestalpine Additive Manufacturing Center in Düsseldorf in 2016. This was the first research and development center for 3D printing with metallic materials.

After the establishment of the Additive Manufacturing Center, voestalpine went on to build sites in Taiwan, North America and Singapore, which have all begun to demonstrate individual areas of expertise. The site in Taiwan, for example, specializes in toolmaking, while the sites in Singapore and Houston both have experience in handling demand for special parts from the oil and gas industry. The sites in Düsseldorf and Mississauga, Canada handle all other areas of demand.

Voestalpine is now increasing its focus on the Asian market in particular. Research is being conducted into additive manufacturing solutions at several Asian locations, including the Taiwan and Singapore sites. These locations are also being highlighted as sites for the construction of competence centers for metal 3D printing. Last year, voestalpine also became a member of Singapore’s research institution Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre, or ARTC, where it now works with other prominent companies including Rolls-Royce and Siemens.

The High Performance Metals Division will continue to focus on expanding plants in the coming months, particularly its international sites. It will also continue to analyze further additive manufacturing technologies. The sites in Houston and Taiwan have recently seen the installation of new state-of-the-art 3D printers, and a new printer will be coming to the Singapore site in May.

“By bundling its global competencies, voestalpine is continually enhancing its expertise and broadening the potential applications for this new technology, enabling the company to offer its customers the best possible solutions—from material through to design—for their sophisticated customized production,” voestalpine states in a blog entry.

Voestalpine has a strong overall global presence; it operates in 50 countries on five continents and has 500 group companies and locations. The company employs 51,600 people across the globe, and last year brought in a revenue of €13 billion. Voestalpine has a long history as a steel manufacturer, but the economic downturn of 2008 helped to facilitate the company’s transition into a technology and industrial goods group. Like so many other companies, voestalpine survived the crash by turning from traditional manufacturing technologies to digital ones, reinventing itself for a new manufacturing world. Now voestalpine is continuing to expand its reach in the technological world, particularly the additive manufacturing industry.

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