The facility, located within the WBA Tooling Academy, will serve as AddUp’s German subsidiary (AddUp GmbH) and house a team of AM engineers to support industrializing additive manufacturing.
AddUp, global metal additive manufacturing OEM, is excited to officially open the doors to their new Tooling Competence Centre in Aachen, Germany in May 2023. A joint venture created by Michelin and Fives in 2016, AddUp is headquartered in Cébazat, France. The Tooling Competence Centre is located within the WBA Tooling Academy in Aachen, Germany.
In addition to this additive manufacturing facility, a new office in Aachen will serve as AddUp’s German subsidiary (AddUp GmbH) and host a local team of AM engineers ready to support companies to industrialize AM.
This is the group’s second AM facility outside of France, following the opening of a new Solution Centre in North America last year.
AddUp specializes in two types of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies: Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) and Directed Energy Deposition (DED). Their machine portfolio includes the FormUp range of robust and open-architecture PBF machines, as well as the BeAM Modulo and Magic lines of industrial DED machines. AM is a key technology in digital manufacturing and offers many advantages and opportunities for the tooling industry. Specifically, PBF enables tools with multiple parts to be produced more quickly than with conventional technologies. AM allows tools to be designed with complicated geometries to improve performance and efficiencies. For example, in the case of plastic injection molding, PBF technology can create complex cooling channels to optimize cooling and cycle times. The WBA is a technical reference centre for the tooling industry. The WBA offers consulting, training, and research activities to promote all innovative technologies applicable to mold and tool production. For this reason, the WBA’s state-of-the-art workshop was chosen as the perfect location for AddUp to enter the tooling ecosystem within Germany with their Tooling Competence Centre.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the opening of our Tooling Competence Centre at the WBA in Aachen. Germany has a rich history in the tooling sector and AddUp is ready to support metal additive manufacturing adoption within this industry by showcasing our know-how in AM technology, productivity, quality and safety using the FormUp 350.” says Julien Marcilly, Deputy CEO of AddUp. “We are looking forward to providing our customers in the tooling industry complete support for their metal 3D printing projects through this Tooling Competence Centre.”
AddUp has extensive experience in the tooling industry developing applications and materials best suited for mold and tool production. The Tooling Competence Centre provides a resource for tooling manufacturers to validate their applications and partner with an expert in PBF technology. The facility is equipped with a FormUp 350 PBF machine and tool makers will have the opportunity to submit application cases for evaluation beyond a simple proof-of-concept. They will be able to study all aspects of their project, from the design applied to PBF, to the profitability analysis and the study of series production.
