The voestalpine Group has opened a research and development center for the 3D printing of metal parts at a site in Düsseldorf.
The new voestalpine additive manufacturing center, part of the company’s special steel division, will cover all the Group’s research activities in this field, focusing on particularly complex and lightweight metal components for use in aviation and aerospace, the automotive industry and tool manufacturing. The company also plans to develop cooperative partnerships and locations in North America and China. In future the raw material required for the process—a specially manufactured metal powder—will be supplied by the Group companies Böhler Edelstahl GmbH & Co KG, Austria, and Uddeholms AB, Sweden.
‘As a result of the intensive research and development work undertaken in the past 15 years, voestalpine has developed from a traditional steel manufacturer to become a global leading technology and capital goods group,’ said Wolfgang Eder, chairman of the management board of voestalpine AG. ‘We want to consistently strengthen this position, and continue to remain at the forefront of developments in new production processes such as additive manufacturing.’
This story is reprinted from material from voestalpine, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.