Author: Ingo Schepers

The production of lightweight components reduces the need for resources. By using additive manufacturing, complex designs and structures can also be realized, which are in high demand in lightweight construction. In combination with targeted material selection, additive manufacturing helps to produce lightweight structures that can also be manufactured and used in a resource-efficient and material-saving manner.

In the new round of tenders for the TTP Lightweight Construction, it was possible to add material and resource efficiency to the funding conditions thanks to MGA. Stefanie Brickwede has actively brought the topic into the This means that projects that focus on the development of materials and technologies to reduce resource consumption and CO2 emissions and optimize production processes will now also be supported. By Mr. Werner Loscheider, Head of Unit IVB4 “Construction Industry, Resource Efficiency” in the BMWK already showed at the annual meeting of the working group Materials to the Annual Meeting 2022, on 12.10.2022, the problematic issues of resource efficiency, material shortages and breaking supply chains, which companies face ever greater challenges.

The TTP LB will be increased to 129 million euros annually starting in 2024. The funding guidelines for the program are currently being revised and will be published in the coming months. Further information can be found in the TTP LB newsletter and will be published by the BMWI in the coming weeks.

More information can be found here: https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/DE/Artikel/Technologie/technologietransfer-programm-leichtbau.html

There are not a lot of AM-industry events that start as early as Sunday while lasting until Thursday and that at the same time require flying for half a day (if you are based in Europe). Despite these maybe unfavorable circumstances, we set out for AMUG for the first time after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. Why leave Europe? Because of the goal of the AMUG: To connect users and concrete approaches of AM to solutions. In other words, the same goal that our network is pursuing! While our focus is on Europe, AMUG’s is on the United States. The willingness of all participants to inspire and live change is what makes largest AM conference in America so unique.

And there are A LOT of participants: To keep the sheer volume of people from overwhelming you, attendees are purposefully mixed and seated by lottery at lunch alongside other attendees. The guests bring new technologies and materials to the market, expand our network, or strengthen the user perspective in the industry. From AM to PM, the Hilton-Hotel Chicago buzzes with conversations like a beehive. The evening events also contribute to getting to know each other – some evenings have specific themes or, as this year, take place in the specially rented museum for Science and History.

During the day, you can pick out fascinating presentations on the latest technologies, trends, and applications from numerous tracks, or learn something about AMUG’s sponsors.

For our network, Stefanie Brickwede, together with Ole von Seelen from Trinckle, was able to present applications in the railroad sector and associated production aids. This attracted great interest, especially since the railroad sector in the United States is still relatively niche.

What are other trends that we observed abroad?

• Cybersecurity, certainly also driven by the many participants from the American Army,
• New metal technologies aimed towards large volume printing (MELD), for example for the chassis of tanks,
• metal technologies aimed towards more cost-effective manufacturing methods (headmade materials),
• concrete printing is everywhere (presentations and a fantastic workshop with hands-on approach)

A very good general overview was, again, given this year by Stefan Ritt about current trends and tendencies. Directly Observable: India is just increasingly entering the world stage for additive manufacturing!

And the previously announced on social media printed basketball from eos and Wilson made an appearance: If you wondered how the relatively high weight of a basketball was achieved, you could have a look at it on site. The Solution: it was printed with double walls and bounced amazingly well.

We will try to get the most exciting presentations to our Annual Meeting.

Next year we will be there again. We wouldn’t want to miss this exchange!

Imagine being given a use case and you and your team have two days to come up with a unique product design, business case and marketing strategy for that specific use case utilizing the benefits of AM – and of course you must pitch your product in front of industry experts at the end of your deadline.

This is what the nine student teams from all over Germany at the MGA – VDI Students Competition, an international and interdisciplinary competition on 3D printing for students on all aspects of additive manufacturing and digitization, were confronted with on Friday morning, April 21, and we have to say they all rose to the challenge.

Volocopter GmbH provided the use case – a landing pod for a cargo logistic drone that is, among other boundary conditions, capable of carrying a load of 2 tons and able to adjust to different terrains. And of course, your team has a very limited budget.

Congratulations to Alexander Meyer, Timo Brandes & Kim Jürgensen from the Hochschule Hannover team who won the first place with their product FIREFLY: a landing pod system used in areas prone to wildfires designed to support firefighters. Their solution was amazingly well developed – not just given the unfavourable circumstances – and their corresponding documentation was well organized and structured.

Second winners were the AERODDICTIVE team from the HAW Hamburg (Kristina Brand, Dennis Beck, Moharam Abdelrahman, Sofien Setti, Florian Fuchs, Finn Hörstel, Cedric Foth, Beyza Nur Algan) and third came the MTPY Engineering team from the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg Lörrach (Paul Spöri, Tobias Seiler, Yannick Reinholz, Matteo Mutz, Maximilian Kromen)

Thanks to all other participating teams, who did amazing work and who we all hope to see again next year:

• VDI Young Engineers II from multiple universities (Pascal Arras, Christian Hartmann, Arpad Horvath, Tessa-Katharina Hoyer, Alexander Eckervogt)
• SÜDSLICERS from the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg Lörrach (Leon Essenburg, Nils Schnurr, Quentin Günter, Jan Weber, Hannes Krietemeyer)
• Öcher Printen from FH Aachen (Jens Kesper, Luise Kleinerüschkamp, Maximilan Tinio Leon Schulz, Moritz Köhler)
• The Accidental Engineers from the SRH Berlin (Chintan Joshi, Saikumar Balineni, Aditya Kolhe, Valentina Mugno, Sarvesh Naik)
• Visionary Concepts from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Nadim Miakhil, Nicole Eichner, Leon Crecelius, Philipp Metz, Matthias Stamm)
• VDI Young Engineers I from multiple universities (Sebastian Bongartz, Berke Farhat, Magnus Lühr, Jan Nicklas Becker, Florian Wabnitz)

Given the limited time the students had, we were all impressed with the results that the teams presented on Sunday at the end of the competition. Thanks to our jury members Marc Fette, Jan Evers, Jens Holtmannspötter, Pranav Nagarajan, Linus Tillmann and Jan Grasmannsdorf for not just ranking but also mentoring and supporting the teams.

Thanks to our sponsors and supporters Airbus, Altair, Autodesk, Copteruni GmbH, Composite Technology Center / CTC GmbH (An Airbus Company), Volocopter GmbH, Helmut-Schmidt-Universität/Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg, AM Forum Berlin and Deutsche Bahn without which the competition would not be possible.

If you would like to support the competition or participate in it, please contact us – we are looking forward to an even bigger event next year!

Wann?
06. Juni 2023
13 – 17:30 Uhr

Wo?
MGA Mobility | Medical goes Additive e.V.
Im Marienpark 22, 12107 Berlin

Welche Tests im Rahmen der EN ISO 10993 werden benötigt ? Welche sind sinnvoll ? Wie werden diese optimal umgesetzt? Diese und weitere Fragen beantworten wir in unserem ersten MGA Practical Guidance Seminar.

Wir bieten für Material- und Maschinenhersteller sowie für alle Interessenten der AM-Szene ein Seminar zur optimalen Nutzung der EN ISO 10993 für AM-relevante Materialen mit Blick auf die Herstellung von Medizinprodukten an. Das Seminar wird zusammen mit Expertants GmbH und HygCen Germany GmbH durchgeführt.

Gerne dürfen eigene Materalien mitgebracht und mit Experten bewertet und diskutiert werden.

Ziel ist es, Materialanwender auf die biologisch sichere Seite zu bringen.

Am Ende werden Teilnahmebescheinigungen ausgehändigt und auf die Teilnehmenden wartet eine kleine Überraschung.

Die Kosten belaufen sich für nicht-MGA Mitglieder auf 399 €,
für MGA-Mitglieder ist dieses Seminar kostenfrei!

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Resource shortages are a mayor issue for many industries not only due to supply chain disruptions, but also from a sustainability perspective. That is why, we and our members are also addressing the issue of reusability of materials for medical applications – which have even tougher requirements than many other applications.

Therefore, on March 23, 2023, members of our Medical Materials Working Group met at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Berlin to launch our new focus group “Analyses & Processings”. A special thank you to Dr Norbert Löwa who was a great host and guided the participants around the site as a little highlight. A very informative keynote by Amelie Victoria Banhart from DIN on the various AM relevant standards rounded out the program.

We are very pleased to announce that the Focus Group will be led by Edson Costa Santos (ZEISS Group) – and in this role Edson directly created a questionnaire on the reuse of metallic and polymer powders, which the group will now communicate to interested network members.

The biggest issue for the Focus Group is to establish a set of methods that will give us data on the reuse of materials that have gone through a printing process, especially with regard to medical devices. To do this, we need lots of background knowledge on existing standards, on analyses and the expertise of all those interested in this topic area – this is where we need the input of our members!

Now the network is in demand and we are looking forward to active cooperation in this new project. Let’s get started together! If you are interested, please contact Dr. Cora Lüders-Theuerkauf

We all know what our respective companies can do but when it comes to Additive Manufacturing and advancing the technology, it is important to every once in a while step outside the box and take a look at the big picture.

Which is why together with Berlin Partner for Business and Economy (big thank you to David Hampel, Markus Facklam, Magdalena Radkowski & Sybille Weimann) and with support from the Berlin Business Office, USA, as well as the German American Chamber of Commerce, we organised a Tech-Journey to New York and Boston as well as the participation in an AM event at the US East Coast at the beginning of February 2023.

The delegation was a mix of Berlin/Brandenburg based companies as well as members of the MGA-community with strong ties to the region due to their work within the network.

Our trip started on a Monday in New York and after mastering the NY subway (yes, we did see a rat or two) we arrived at the Brookly Navy Yard for the first company visits and gained insights into the workings of US startups.

At the Yard and within the NewLab facilities one can find an atmosphere providing inspiration and room for growth for multiple amazing ideas. Many of the tenants of the area use AM in different ways: they for example develop important software for quality assurance for the production process (Nanotronics), they print clay to develop the sustainable cities of the future or design Cobod systems with AM (Terreform ONE) or produce for example more patient-friendly dosage systems for drugs (10XBeta Venture Studio).

While our IAM Hub in Berlin is aiming to be as inspirational as the Brooklyn Navy Yard, gaining insight into the working StartUp Hub in New York has definitely given us a lot to think about. One of the many questions we take home: how can we get more funding for AM projects or more support from the government in general for our industry?

Monday night 3DPrint.com hosted an amazing pre-event night at the Brooklyn Nets Basketball home – the Barkley Arena. Thanks again for this experience of true American sport and show, where the home team put up a great fight but was in the end defeated by the slightly superior LA Clippers.

Tuesday and Wednesday we spend at the Additive Manufacturing Strategies, New York City’s only 3D printing trade show, hosted by 3DPrint.com in a beautiful venue in Manhattan. John Meckler, Joris Peels and Lawrence Gasman welcomed our delegation with open arms, and we were treated to inspiring speeches and great networking opportunities – not just at the Bavarian Night hosted by AM Ventures with Pretzels and Beer.

Berlin Partner hosted their own AMBER session, showcasing the opportunities that Berlin offers to startups and AM companies and also gave our delegation members the chance to present themselves on stage to the guests of the trade show. Learn more

MGA was the sponsor of the first ever TRANSPORTATION vertical at the AMS hosting keynotes from members of our delegation on the different modes of transportation:

• Railway: Helge Schneevogt, DB
• Approval in Rail: Max Kunkel, Siemens
• Seafaring (Defence): Sascha Hartig, German Navy
• Automotive: Jürgen Jenner, Mann + Hummel – as part of a panel together with Cora Leibig from Chromatic 3D

Also part of the transportation vertical were keynotes from the NASA (Paul Gradl) and Boeing – rounding off the topic with aerospace and space transportation.

What are we taking home from the AMS?

• 10 percent of rail parts today can be 3D printed,
• NASA is going big with large metal parts,
• AM possibilities are nearly endless and far from exhausted,
• Recycling of material is very much in demand,
• AI can become a key factor for success,
• Investors are still very interested in the technology.

On Wednesday night we boarded a train to Boston (interesting experience using the AMTRAK, we still do appreciate the European Railways 😉) to continue experiencing as much as possible.

Thursday was all about metal printing which is why a bus took us a little way out of Boston to VulcanForms (where we were welcomed by Martin C. Feldmann, their Co-Founder, President & CEO and amazingly enough a graduate of the RWTH Aachen) and then on to DesktopMetal (meeting Tyler Harrington and Thomas Nogueira).

What truly fascinated our delegation was the sheer amount of money that the US spends on defence. In the year 2022 the Department of Defence had a budget of $ 1.64 Trillion (source: https://www.usaspending.gov/agency/department-of-defense?fy=2022). It therefore comes as no surprise that a lot of AM startups and companies are involved in the defence (or aerospace) sector in the US. The question is: do the European companies want a piece of that pie or are we concentrating on more peaceful sectors of the industry?

What else are we taking home? There are a lot of great ideas on how to make AM more sustainable for example by printing sustainable materials such as wood, or by making supply chains more sustainable by sending out smaller parts that can be enlarged on site (check out printed foam for that one). In order for the industry to be able to compete with other production technologies, we need to find that certain edge and be able to perfect it!

In the evening of our second night in Boston the German Consul General Boston, Dr. Sonja Kreibich, hosted our delegation at a networking event with the goal of connecting the delegation with interested parties from the Boston area. Thanks to Victoria Kaeser & Susanne Johnson for organising the event and for welcoming every member of the delegation on stage for their elevator pitches. We were happy to meet close to 70 people that night!

On the last day of our TechJourney we went back to school and visited the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as well as the renowned Harvard campus before our last stop on our route at the Formlabs location in Boston.

All in all we spend 5 days packed with company visits, networking and stage time and left the US East Coast with a clearer picture of what the AM community in New York and Boston is like. There is a lot that we can learn from them, but there is also a lot that they can learn from us and if we keep up the exchange that we started during that time, our industry can greatly benefit from the cooperation!

Thanks to the members of our delegation for being amazing travelling companions:

• 1000Kelvin GmbH – Dr. Katharina Eissing & Dr. Omar Fergani
• Photon Laser Manufacturing GmbH – Uriel Elliesen
• DB Fahrzeuginstandhaltung GmbH – Helge Schneevogt
• XERION BERLIN LABORATORIES GmbH – Uwe Lohse
• Siemens Mobility GmbH – Maximilian Kunkel
• yoona.ai – Anna Franziska Michel
• Fraunhofer IPK – Tobias Neuwald
• FEHRMANN Tech Group – Mahendran Reddy
• Breuninger Management – Hans-Alfred Breuninger
• Navy Command of the German Navy – Sascha Hartig
• MANN+HUMMEL – Jürgen Jenner
• Berlin Partner – David Hampel & Markus Facklam
• Mobility goes Additive e.V. – Stefanie Brickwede & Berit Timmich

We are already planning the next TechJourney – stay tuned for updates!

If you have an idea for another TechJourney, please don’t hesitate to contact us!