VDMA establishes Additive Manufacturing Association
May 26, 2022
The VDMA’s Additive Manufacturing Working Group has announced the formation of an Additive Manufacturing Association to provide a network for German and European companies looking to strengthen cooperation and exploit the full potential of Additive Manufacturing technology.
Launched at the members’ meeting in Berlin, and headed by Dr Markus Heering, the new Additive Manufacturing Association is said to complement the existing VDMA Additive Manufacturing Working Group which currently has around two-hundred member companies and institutes from across Europe working in all areas of the additive process chain.
Together, they are working to make the technology usable in networked, highly automated process worlds of Industry 4.0. Such potential can only be leveraged if Additive Manufacturing processes can be successfully integrated into highly automated industrial process chains of the future, and this is said to be the goal that the members of the VDMA have been working towards for several years.
“In view of the abundance of applications across many industries, our member companies are looking to the future with great expectations,” stated Dr Heering.
The VDMA added that the recently conducted spring survey paints a positive picture with three-quarters of the member companies surveyed reporting sales increases in 2021. At 81%, the majority of members expect further growth in the domestic market over the next twenty-four months and two-thirds expect export growth.
