This week, we hosted a roomful of 3D printing professionals, academics and enthusiasts in Essen, Germany. Against the dramatic backdrop of an old coal quarry, we organized a 3DP Academy and a conference to discuss the questions that come up frequently among 3D printing adopters today. How do you implement Additive Manufacturing in your company? What kind of time-and-cost savings can be achieved by switching your production to 3D-printed spare parts? And how can you use 3D Printing to produce “better” parts? With speakers from Daimler, Deutsche Bahn, Lufthansa and Siemens among others, we got some great insights into how major players in diverse sectors are adopting Additive Manufacturing into their operations today.
Hosted at the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Zollverein coal mine, the Kolloquium 4.0 had a memorable setting. With the conference and the workshop on Additive Manufacturing, the Zollverein quarry witnessed a poetic contrast between the relics of yesteryears’ technology and the ambitions of today’s.
After the conference, we took the participants on a visit to the acclaimed Red Dot Design Museum where Materialise is currently hosting one of Germany’s first exhibitions on 3D Printing: “Making A Difference / A Difference in Making”. Curated by Marta Malé-Alemany and produced by Materialise, the traveling exhibition invites visitors on a journey into the world of this revolutionary technology. It’s a technology that is not only making a difference in the world today — helping save lives, transforming how industries work, empowering people to shape their dreams — but also changes the very means in which we make objects. “Even though we work with such amazing projects from varied customers every day, in so many different industries, it’s only at an exhibition like this that you really see a glimpse of what Additive Manufacturing is capable of today,” says Claudia Schallenberg, Materialise Germany.
“It was also a great complement to the discussions from the conference, to come to the Red Dot museum and see many of the ideas already in action.”
Interested in participating in one of our events? Keep an eye on our website. Or discover the value of 3D Printing by visiting our exhibition at the Red Dot Design Museum until 30th October 2016.
A view on the interior of the Zollverein mine
AGRIEBORZ by Nick Ervinck
The impact of 3D Printing on the body
Achieving optimal forms with 3D Printing