ADDILYS: AddUp Group & IPC Partner For Conformal Cooling

The AddUp Group (founded by Fives and Michelin) and IPC (backed by the Federation of Plastics Processing and Composites Manufacturing) are partnering together to bring ADDILYS to industrial users as a platform dedicated to upgrading AM processes for tooling. Ultimately, they will be developing customized, optimized thermal ‘conformal cooling’ systems meant for industrial plastics solutions.

Using high-performance 3D printers, both AddUp and IPC envision the key as increasing productivity for the manufacturing chain and using all their resources to ‘ensure agile and efficient deployment.’

As a comprehensive solution, ADDILYS is meant to offer:

• Global solutions for manufacturers
• Support from advice to maintenance
• Tooling design
• Demos

“The IPC Technical Centre was created a few years ago by plastics processing manufacturers who were seeking to boost innovation and improve their companies’ competitive edge. This unusual partnership between a research center and a manufacturer, ADDUP, the emerging leader in additive manufacturing, is a real opportunity to harness each organization’s skills and the R&D advances gained over the last few years to the benefit of sector manufacturers,” says Etienne Bechet de Balan, IPC President.

This new project will take place at headquarters in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region, near both AddUp and IPC offices. The unique HUB is meant to cater to critical world sectors like aeronautics and energy, while AddUp offers expertise in metal AM processes, along with their experience in customizing according to a wide range of customer needs. IPC brings valuable knowledge of plastics and thermal solutions, along with experience in designing molds.

“ADDILYS is THE trade response for plastics processing and tooling users,” said David MULLER, CEO of ADDILYS. “Combining 3D printing skills with the expertise of trade users (plastics processing, etc.) the company provides/offers an optimum response for technical solutions that brings benefits in the quickest and most efficient way, while offering ad-hoc support in order to improve operational productivity.

“As pioneers in the development of 3D printing solutions for manufacturing, and thanks to the experience gained from our shareholders, Fives and Michelin, we are convinced that creating this platform with IPC will enable manufacturing industry actors that use molds to access an innovative services offering that is able to add enormous value,” said Vincent FERREIRO, AddUp Director General.

Advances in metal 3D printing just keep marching forward, and especially in the industrial realm where materials science is becoming a huge area of study as well. While major international leaders in AM processes have teamed up—as in this story—around the world many other research labs and engineering departments continue to churn out the case studies and dynamic ongoing development from studying porosity, to creating complex monitoring systems and taking metal 3D printing to the next phase.

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