The Voestalpine Group, Dusseldorf, announces that it is expanding its traditional steel manufacturing to 3D printing with the opening of an additive manufacturing research and development facility. The Voestalpine Additive Manufacturing Center will centralize all its research activities in this field, harnessing the manufacturing process for particularly complex and lightweight metal components for aviation and aerospace, the automotive industry, tool manufacturing, and more. The Special Steel Division of the Voestalpine Group founded the research center to leverage its potential for the long term.
With a record research budget of $160 million for the current business year 2016/17—an increase of 13% over the previous year—Voestalpine is Austria’s most research-intensive company.
The next step for the company is to develop more cooperative partnerships and expansion into North America and China. In the future, the raw material required for the process will be supplied by the group companies Böhler Edelstahl GmbH & Co. KG, Austria, and Uddeholm AB, Sweden. Both subsidiaries have many years of experience in powder metallurgy as a pre-material for highly durable steels. To gain further expertise in the manufacturing of powders specifically for metal printing, two powder atomization facilities for steel and nickel-based alloys will start operations during the business year 2016/17, one at Uddeholm AB in Hagfors, Sweden, and the second at Bohler Edelstahl in Kapfenberg, Austria.
Companies from almost all sectors are embracing additive manufacturing and funding research and development. The wider adoption of 3D printing will mean better and faster innovations across the board.
