Fraunhofer ILT seeks SMEs for Additive Manufacturing Stakeholder Workshop
February 22, 2018
Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen, Germany, is seeking SMEs for an upcoming AM stakeholder workshop (Courtesy Fraunhofer ILT)
An AM Stakeholder Workshop will be held at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen, Germany, March 20, 2018. Part of the institute’s AMable project, which was set up to aid businesses in their adoption of Additive Manufacturing, the workshop aims to bring companies from the AM sector into the project as ‘enablers’ for the technology.
According to the organisers, the workshop will focus on identifying suitable applications for Additive Manufacturing by asking the question: “Could we be doing this with 3D printing?” Over the course of the one-day workshop, project teams and stakeholders are expected to come together to discuss how companies can progress from the gathering of data on AM to the development of AM-based skills.
“The nineteen institutes taking part are primarily looking to help SMEs implement their ideas using AM,” explains Ulrich Thombansen, Fraunhofer ILT. “To that end, we are seeking enablers from private industry and associations who can support us with their needs and requests as well as their expertise at the AM Stakeholder Workshop on March 20, 2018.” SMEs are invited to register for the workshop via the AMable website.
According to Thombansen, the researchers in attendance hope to work with experts from industry and associations to investigate how AMable can support the extension of data formats and machine interfaces to help companies move towards a seamless adoption of Additive Manufacturing. During the second part of the workshop, members of the AM Motion project will lead a discussion on the results of a European AM skills and education screening.
AMable has received funding of €8 million from the European Commission and currently provides more than €5 million in financial support to eligible SMEs. The project is being run under the European Union’s I4MS Initiative, which cites the primary objective of paving the way for SMEs towards industrial AM of metals and plastics.
AMable participating companies include CISCO, Industrial Dataspace, KeenBull, Zabala, Fraunhofer ILT and ISST, AIMEN, DTI, EWF, Frederic, Inspire, Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems & Automation, Lortek, the Manufacturing Technology Center (MTC), Politechnico di Torino, Sirris, SUPSI, TNO, TWI, Politechnika Wroclawska, and VTT.
