3D Printing Association ends operations
January 24, 2019
The 3D Printing Association (3DPA), a start-up association which launched in 2015 with the mission to provide an independent, member-driven platform to advance the Additive Manufacturing industry in Europe, has announced the permanent termination of its operations. In 2015, the 3DPA relocated its office from London to The Hague with the view of creating an independent professional B2B platform for the AM industry.
However, in view of the rapidly changing landscape of businesses, institutions and platforms aiming to develop AM, 3DPA will cease its operations as of February 1, 2019. 3DPA stated that it is pleased that CECIMO, the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries and related Manufacturing Technologies, has successfully established a leading role in advocating the interests of the AM industry in Europe.
Jules Lejeune, Managing Director of 3DPA, who acquired the start-up platform in 2015 from its founder Ian Ferguson, recalled in his statement that 3DPA was founded at a time when AM technology was in transition from an ‘infant’, emerging young technology driven by creative and entrepreneurial start-ups, to a more industrial, business model driven by investments from large multinational corporations.
“3DPA’s goal, derived from an online survey and a business summit at the beginning of 2015, was to provide an independent B2B platform for standardisation, education and industry advocacy,” he stated. “Although there are still important steps to be taken to reaching full maturity, meanwhile the landscape has become less fragmented and volatile, and Additive Manufacturing has been embraced as strategic pillar by well-established umbrella organisations in sectors like manufacturing, automotive, aerospace and medical appliances.”
“CECIMO, for example, is the long standing European Association of the Machine Tool Industries and related Manufacturing Technologies. It represents some 350 leading AM companies that play a significant role in a wide variety of critical sections of the AM value chain – from the supply of all different types of raw materials for Additive Manufacturing and the development of software, to machine manufacturing and post-processing. In recent years, it has successfully claimed a leading role in bringing relevant topics to the regulatory agenda in Brussels.”
