Whether power plant construction, aerospace, medical technology or the automotive industry, "additive manufacturing methods are bringing about the next industrial revolution," says U.S. economist Jeremy Rifkin. U.S. President Barack Obama would like to make HANNOVER MESSE's Partner Country for 2016 the leading nation in 3D printing. Germany has 3D printing on its digital agenda. German mechanical engineers are increasingly applying the technology. "Additive manufacturing has become extremely relevant for the industry," Rainer Gebhardt told the financial news agency dpa-AFX in February. Gebhardt is the head of the "very dynamic", growing work group "Additive Manufacturing" for the Association of German Mechanical Engineers. The 100 members include manufacturing companies, service providers, and research institutions. Gebhardt is optimistic about the current year. The technology is increasingly being implemented in industrial manufacturing.

At Digital Factory the role played by this field is growing proportionately. Schorndorfer alphacam GmbH is once again exhibiting at the trade show. This reseller for the international market leader Stratasys will demonstrate the U.S. company's latest 3D innovations.

Among the 3D printing specialists who are exhibiting primarily in Hall 7 in Hannover is Altair Engineering. As "the most comprehensive CAE platform available on the market" HyperWorks provides "leading industry solutions for modeling, analysis, visualization and data management for linear and nonlinear applications as well as structural optimization, fluid-structure-interaction and dynamic multi-body simulation for the FEM, CFD and MBS fields," according to the manufacturer.

Altair is exhibiting for the fifth time at HANNOVER MESSE. According to Mirko Bromberger, Director of Marketing & Additive Manufacturing Strategy at Altair, there was a simple reason for the fact that the company expanded its exhibition space last year. "HANNOVER MESSE's focus on lightweight construction and additive manufacturing corresponds more and more to our portfolio." Developed for a good 5000 customers from various industries, the company supports simulation technology that allows designs, processes and decisions to be optimized. "Without a paradigm shift in development and construction, too much potential is wasted, especially in terms of fiber composite components and products created with additive manufacturing," says Mirko Bromberger. "The possibilities inherent in the freedom of design cannot be exploited using conventional construction methods."

On April 28 at 2:05 p.m. Bromberger will be presenting Altair solutions at the 2nd Additive Manufacturing Symposium. "Additive manufacturing technology is opening up new fields of design, construction and manufacturing of components and functional groups," explains the Additive Manufacturing group within the German Engineering Federation (VdMA), which is hosting the event. Entitled "Constructing the Impossible – 3D Printing Revolutionizes Mechanical Engineering" this symposium will be held on Thursday during the trade show from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Convention Center (CC) in the Bonn room. Plant constructors, service providers and users of AM technology will discuss industrial plastic processing in plant construction, applications in robotics and process engineering, and market and technology developments.

Lukas Pawelczyk from Arburg GmbH & Co. KG will be one of the ten speakers at the symposium. He will discuss the opportunities and challenges in the additive manufacturing process "Arburg Plastic Freeforming". In Hall 7 during Digital Factory Arburg will be showcasing "a completely IT integrated and fully automated manufacturing line for customized office scissors" in which a robot with seven axes plays an integral role. "It's also a challenge to take profitability and availability into account when manufacturing batch sizes of one," states Arburg in its trade show announcement.

By combining injection molding, additive manufacturing and Industry 4.0 technologies the full-scale production series "office scissors" will be customized "in a flexible, automated, cyber physical production system" at the Arburg stand. When placing an order, trade show visitors will enter their own signature onto a tablet and select one of four types of scissors. The information will be recorded digitally and series production will start automatically on Arburg's "Allrounder 370 E". "Using a data matrix (DM) code each product becomes a data storage medium that can monitor and control its own path through the production line," according to Arburg. In the next step, the Freeformer applies the 3D signature to the plastic. The ARBURG line supervisor system (ALS) plays a major role by recording the parameters and forwarding them to a web server. Product, process and quality information can be accessed from the cloud using mobile devices.