"As expected, we received most of our orders in the third and fourth quarters,” said CFO Uwe Bo¨gershausen. “This is not only connected with our customers' budget planning, but also with the fact that EuroMold, the most important sector trade fair, is held in November."
At the show SLM Solutions received its largest individual order in its corporate history to date, when additive manufacturing (AM) company FIT Fruth Innovative Technologien GmbH, based in Lupburg (Upper Palatinate), ordered five units of the SLM 500HL machine. FIT Fruth uses SLM Solutions' machines for serial production of transmission components for the automotive sector, for example.
Multi-machine orders
“We are observing that our industrial customers are increasingly placing orders for several machines in order to deploy them in the direct manufacturing of complex components,” said CEO Dr Markus Rechlin. “This year we have received a total of seven so-called multi- machine orders – compared with not a single one last year. Secondly, we are seeing repeat purchases, as well as orders from new customers in growth regions such as Japan."
