Materialise opens titanium additive manufacturing plant in Germany

Materialise NV is a leading supplier of additive manufacturing software and an advanced 3D printing services company that has announced metal printing activities at its plant in Bremen, Germany. The new production line at the Materialise Metal Competence Center will serve industrial customers who wish to produce titanium alloy parts.

 Materialise has extensive expertise in metal printing, most notably developing metal AM software and releasing build processors with leading metal OEMs. On the hardware side, Materialise recently announced the completion of an internal metal printing project that installed a medical production line at its headquarters. Now, as technology matures and demand for printed metal parts continues to increase, the company has begun to expand its metal products for industrial services, and the supply of aluminum has been announced earlier this year.

 With more than 120 3D printers and global capacity for a variety of available technologies, Materialise has grown to become one of the world's largest providers of additive manufacturing services. The company says that more than 2,000 parts are produced and shipped to customers around the world every day. Germany's metal production facility is Materialise's fourth industrial production unit in Europe, adjacent to major Belgian plants and factories in Poland and the Czech Republic.

 “This is an important step in terms of commitment to the German market,” said CEO Fried Vancraen. “It enables us to manufacture parts close to our customers in the aerospace and industrial products industries. With this scalable website in Bremen, we clearly use metal printing as a strategic part of our industrial products.”

 The entire event will be integrated into Materialise's Bremen office, and since the acquisition of Marcam Engineering in 2011, the company's expertise in metal printing software has been centralized. Metal production will be led by Ingo Uckelmann, who brings a solid background in metal printing for dental applications. He joined Materialise in July 2015 and started operations.

 “This action reinforces the role of the Bremen office as a metal competence center for Materialise. Our team of experts has a deep understanding of the needs and challenges of metal AM, and by launching this new line, we will be able to expand our Knowledge and application of the next generation of software, while also providing high quality manufacturing. Titanium for our industrial customers, "Materialise GmbH Managing Director Marcus Joppe said.

 Materialise will use TiAl6V4, one of the most well-known alloys with excellent mechanical properties and very low specific gravity. The material is corrosion resistant and can be used in a variety of demanding engineering environments such as aerospace. Applications include functional prototypes, rugged end-use parts and spare parts.