3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing Milestones: EOS Celebrates Three Decades

Germany’s EOS has been revolutionizing and expanding the world of manufacturing for 30 years now. As one of the leaders in 3D printing and additive manufacturing, their innovative impact in past decades has been formidable. And it continues, as they celebrate three decades of progress in industrial 3D printing.

Founded in 1989 by Dr. Hans J. Langer, EOS has an installed base of almost 3,500 industrial 3D printing systems around the globe. While most 3D printing enterprises centered around rapid prototyping to begin with, the technology overall has become well-known for offering affordability, speed, and the ability to make items never before possible. Along with that is a growing popularity for low-batch and serious production of functional 3D printed and additive manufactured parts.

Since 1989, the EOS vision has been to create 3D printed products with laser technology—and while it may not be as much of a novelty anymore, the world of 3D printers still has infinite room for development. The EOS team sees their success in the world of industrial 3D printing as stemming from their pioneering spirits, courage in creating, and a motivation to make people’s lives better with the industry- and customer-specific 3D printing solutions they produce.

The founder of EOS, Dr. Hans Langer.

With a centered focus on laser sintering, EOS has continued to make strides:

“While the early phase of the enterprise was still dominated by stereolithography technology, since 1997 EOS has concentrated exclusively on laser sintering,” states the team in their latest press release. “This was a far-reaching decision at that time and the right strategy, as it turned out. The powder-bed based process is particularly well suited to today’s rapidly growing market of series applications. This is true both in terms of quality and reproducibility and the speed and cost of part production.”

EOS 3D printing products allow clients to manufacture high-performance parts that function in a wide range of applications such as aerospace, the transportation sector, and medical field, due to lighter weight, flexibility, and stability. EOS technology produces less waste and can also be integrated into existing production mechanisms.

“EOS’ technology and know-how are accordingly used in a variety of industries and areas of life: Whether fuel-saving components in the aviation sector, spare parts on demand for buses and trains, or prostheses individually created to suit each patient,” states the company in their press release.

While 3D printing and additive manufacturing offer extensive benefits to so many different industries today, conventional manufacturing techniques are still heavily relied on. EOS sees the big picture and envisions all these technologies coming together for many companies in a busy digital factory atmosphere. This is an exciting concept that EOS is actively advancing:

“The establishment of complete digital production platforms is a major goal that we are aiming to achieve in the coming years,” said Dr. Adrian Keppler, CEO of EOS. “It’s not just about providing the right 3D printing solutions, but about evaluating, planning, setting-up, and optimizing AM production cells to leverage all the advantages and possibilities of digitalization.”

EOS P 800

Today, EOS employs over 1,200 people around the world—a far cry from the original team of four! They are still family-owned, and independent, offering AM systems in both polymers and metals. EOS also offers a consulting unit, Additive Minds, with 300 successful customer projects.

Much has happened over three decades, and EOS has assisted in the spectacular evolution of 3D printing all along the way. Just in the past few years they have begun focusing on a larger group strategy while expanding training programs too. They have created automated systems for additive manufacturing with metal, expanded further with a new 3D printing plant, and acquired and integrated Vulcan Labs into their continually growing fold.

Find out more about EOS here. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.