Winners of 2020 Formnext Start-up Challenge announced
The international Formnext Start-up Challenge, organised by Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH as part of Formnext Connect 2020, has announced this year’s winners. Each of the winners will now present their breakthrough ideas during Formnext Connect.
The five winning startups named are Addiguru (USA), AM Flow (the Netherlands), Molyworks (USA), TOffeeAM (UK), and polymer-focused NematX (Switzerland), . Molyworks also received the AM Ventures Impact Award, given for the first time this year as part of the Formnext Start-up Challenge.
The winning submissions range from solutions for automated design and post-processing to production monitoring and new synthetic materials, according to the award organisers. In offering innovations that are largely affordable and easy to implement, the 2020 award winners are seeking to further expand the scope of AM applications.
The diverse developments among the award winners also reflect the fact that the ongoing progression of Additive Manufacturing will require advancements along the entire process chain, the organisers explained.
Molyworks received its awards for a combined mobile unit which enables the melting down of scrap metal to be processed into AM-ready powder on-site. The software offered by TOffeeAM, for example, was created to make the process of implementing new AM designs simpler, paving the way for better-performing components.
Through effective, self-learning process monitoring, Addiguru also aims to increase the efficiency of AM by significantly reducing the costs involved. AM Flow’s end-to-end solution, meanwhile, focuses on post-processing, which remains a challenge in the AM of larger lot sizes.
“The high quality of these impressive developments and the wide range of areas they cover show that not even the coronavirus can stop the innovative power of the AM industry,” stated Sascha F. Wenzler, Vice President for Formnext at Mesago Messe Frankfurt.
The debut of the AM Ventures Impact Award intends to increase the Start-up Awards’ focus on sustainability. “Making a contribution to sustainable development is no longer just an added bonus for startups; it’s crucial to their success, and it also provides them with major business opportunities,” stated Arno Held, CEO of AM Ventures, a leading Additive Manufacturing investor. “Plus, more and more investors are factoring sustainability into their decision-making, and it won’t be long before they all do.”
The Formnext Start-up Challenge recognises companies that are no older than five years for innovative and viable business ideas. Its judging panel consists of prominent representatives from industry, science, media, and investment.
