Materialise Opens Metal 3D Printing Factory in Germany

Over the years, Materialise has built extensive expertise in metal printing, most notably by developing cutting-edge metal additive manufacturing (AM) software and releasing build processors with leading metal OEMs. In regards to hardware, Materialise recently announced the completion of an in-house metal printing project that saw a medical production line being installed at their headquarters. Now, with the technology maturing and the demand for printed metal parts increasing, the company has begun expanding their metal offering on the industrial services side, with the availability of aluminum already being announced earlier this year. 

With a global capacity of more than 120 3D printers and wide variety of available technologies, Materialise has grown into one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive providers of additive manufacturing services. Every day, over 2,000 parts are produced and shipped to customers all over the globe. The metal production facility in Germany is Materialise’s forth industrial production unit in Europe, next to the main factory in Belgium and those in Poland and the Czech Republic. 

“In terms of commitment to the German market, this is an important step,” says CEO Fried Vancraen. “It allows us to manufacture parts close to our customers in aeronautics and the industrial goods industry. With this scalable site in Bremen, we clearly put metal printing on the agenda as a strategic part of our industrial offering.”

The entire activity will be incorporated into Materialise’s Bremen office, where the company’s know-how in software for metal printing has been centralized since the acquisition of Marcam Engineering in 2011. The metal production will be led by Ingo Uckelmann, who brings with him a solid background in metal printing for dental applications. He joined Materialise in July 2015 to start up the operations.

Marcus Joppe, Managing Director of Materialise GmbH: “This operation solidifies the Bremen office’s role as Materialise’s Metal Competence Center. Our team of specialists already have a strong understanding of the needs and challenges of metal AM and by starting this new production line, we will be able to expand our knowledge and apply it to the next generation of software while also offering high-quality manufacturing in titanium to our industrial customers.” 

Materialise will be using TiAl6V4, one of the widest-known alloys, combining excellent mechanical properties with a very low specific weight. The material is corrosion resistant and is used in a variety of demanding engineering environments such as aeronautics. Applications include functional prototypes, solid end-use parts and spare parts.  

For technical inquiries, contact our local project teams.

About Materialise

With its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, and branches worldwide, Materialise is a provider of Additive Manufacturing (AM) software solutions and sophisticated 3D printing services in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design and consumer products. Materialise has been playing an active role in the field of AM since 1990, through its involvement in AM for industrial and medical applications, by providing biomedical and clinical solutions such as medical image processing and surgical simulations and by developing unique solutions for its customers' prototyping, production, and medical needs. For additional information, please visit: www.materialise.com.