Conference topics and programme released for 5th Additive Manufacturing Forum Berlin
September 1, 2020
Germany’s Institute for Production Management (IPM AG), the organiser of the 5th Additive Manufacturing Forum Berlin, which is scheduled to take place at the Estrel Congress & Messe Center, Berlin, Germany, from March 11–12, 2021, has published the conference focus topics and programme for the two-day event.
The conference will focus on the following topics:
- Design and Simulation
Design freedom: Conventional manufacturing methods have imposed many restrictions on product design, many of which no longer apply to Additive Manufacturing.
AM provides developers and designers with maximum design freedom and thus a high degree of function optimisation and integration. It allows the modelling of highly complex structures, extremely lightweight and stable at the same time. Bionic and digital design are the guiding principles of AM design. Form no longer follows producibility, but function.
- New Materials
From the existing to the new: Components manufactured with AM were first additively manufactured in their original materials. Plastics and synthetic resins were among the first materials suitable for AM.
Meanwhile, there is a full spectrum of materials for AM such as metals, ceramics, bio-masses and composites. Hybrid materials and powder mixtures that go far beyond the properties of traditional materials are currently entering the market. As the material spectrum and their quality increase, there is a wider application range, making AM more interesting for SMEs.
- Automation and Series Production
The core of the digital factory. Additive Manufacturing is one of the most promising production methods for the future. However, additive and conventional manufacturing are not in competition, they rather complement one another.
Traditional manufacturing is suitable for large quantities of identical components with low complexity. AM, on the other hand, allows smaller quantities of different components with high complexity. With increasing AM maturity, this digital production technology is finding its way into more and more factories, and into series production. In addition, there is work underway automate the additive value chain and to connect it with conventional technologies.
- Postprocessing and Quality
Identical components & reliability: AM productivity is still essentially defined by high cost and time-consuming in post-processing. Studies estimate the costs for post-processing at 60-300% of the AM process, depending on the applied process, material and component. Typical post-processing steps are smoothing, sealing, finishing, removal of support structures, markings and residual powder, heat treatment and re-compaction.
On the one hand, automation of these currently mostly manual post processes is required. On the other hand, it is important to plan the post-processing steps and thus the entire AM process chain right at the start of the product development stage.
The 2021 edition of the AM Forum Berlin is expected to welcome over 1,200 attendees and 135 exhibitors and will feature 120 speakers.
For readers of Metal AM magazine, a registration discount of 10% is available: use code AMF21COOP1. Further information and the full conference programme are available via the event website.
