Formnext 2024: Increasing variety of offerings for additive manufacturing

While many exhibitors at the first Formnext 2015 showcased extravagant 3D-printed designs, companies are now concentrating on specific applications in an industrial context. "Throughout the industry, the return on investment is becoming more and more of a focus every year, alongside overall technological solutions. The phase in which many companies tried out additive manufacturing and purchased AM systems just to have the technology in-house is clearly over," explains Sascha F. Wenzler, Vice President Formnext at the organizer Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH. Additive manufacturing is now increasingly competing with other manufacturing technologies, and real business cases are generally important and decisive parameters. This also has an impact on the requirements that exhibitors have of Formnext: "Companies want to be addressed as specifically as possible for their technology, which usually requires a lot of consultation, without wastage," adds Wenzler. This is also becoming increasingly important in the world of additive manufacturing because the technology is used in a wide range of user industries: 3D printers can now be found in dental laboratories, on construction sites, in the production hall for machines and aircraft, on oil rigs or floating through space on the ISS.

"Our exhibitors are suppliers to all of these industries along the entire upstream and downstream manufacturing processes. Only Formnext addresses such a large number of users and potential user industries in order to bring the technology further into the breadth of manufacturing," explains Sascha Wenzler. Rainer Lotz, President EMEA at Renishaw and Chairman of the Formnext Exhibitor Advisory Board, adds: "Formnext creates the right offerings and formats for every industry. Year after year, innovations from the AM sector and demand from the user industries come together here and ensure constant further development in the direction required by the industry." The continuous strong growth of the AM industry has meant that the topic of 3D printing is now also to be found at many vertical trade fairs that only focus on one user industry. "However, 3D printing is usually a marginal topic there and the solutions presented are naturally very specialized," says Wenzler. "On the other hand, Formnext is indispensable for anyone who wants to obtain comprehensive information on a wide range of processes or requires an individual solution with several production stages." The process chain of additive manufacturing is so important because it is not enough to simply buy a 3D printer for industrial applications. "You need the upstream and downstream process steps. And these should also be suitable for the respective application. It is precisely this diversity that Formnext offers," explains Dr. Markus Heering, Managing Director of the Additive Manufacturing Working Group in the VDMA and a long-standing member of the Formnext Exhibitor Advisory Board. This is also reflected in the wishes of Formnext visitors, who are often on the lookout for complete process solutions. At Formnext, users will not only find the right and latest technologies, but also the necessary know-how, for example through the stage program and seminars. Formnext's varied lecture program highlights the latest technologies, applications and developments in the world of industrial 3D printing. The renowned Discover3Dprinting seminars are aimed at newcomers to 3D printing. "Together with the year-round content offerings, this enables us to tap into new target groups and contacts time and again, which is ultimately also an important wish of our exhibitors," reports Wenzler.