The Association for Manufacturing Technology is pleased to announce that Concept Laser GmbH is the winner of the 2016 International Additive Manufacturing Award (IAMA). The award was presented at the Inside 3D Printing conference as part of METAV 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Founded in 2000 and located in Lichtenfels, Germany, Concept Laser came out on top of 16 innovations from the United States and Europe competing for the prize. “The IAMA is welcome recognition for our hard work, but also evidence that we’re on the right track,” said Frank Herzog, Managing Partner and Founder of Concept Laser. “We are extremely proud to win this prestigious award. It is a great motivation to our company and others around the world to continue exploring the possibilities of additive manufacturing.”
Concept Laser’s winning innovation involves the first in-situ real-time process monitoring system in powder-bed-based additive manufacturing. It measures properties like size and intensity of the melting path’s thermal radiation in ultra-high resolution, and displays the data in correlation to the position of the melting bath on the workpiece’s surface and thus to the component’s geometry. This will make it easy for the user to localize and evaluate process anomalies during production.
“Our innovation enables downstream test processes to be reduced to a minimum, which helps to save both time and money,” Herzog said. “In addition, the process offers an entirely new approach for research and development centers tasked not only with improving the process, but also new materials and component geometries.”
The IAMA was launched in 2014 by AMT in partnership with VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association) to support the growing field of additive manufacturing technology and foster the expansion of its industrial applications. This year’s entries were reviewed by an international jury, which included technologists from AMT, VDW, academia, the media and industry. The winner will receive a $20,000 cash prize, plus a media package worth $80,000 for marketing the award-winning technology supported by media partners Gardner Business Media and VDI Nachrichten. CECIMO, the European Association of Machine Tool Industries, is a sponsor.
“It’s exciting to see leading-edge companies from six different countries competing for the prize,” said Douglas K. Woods, President of AMT. “Their impressive innovations show that the opportunities and challenges in additive technology are attracting the right kind of attention from innovators around the world.”
“Innovations like that from Concept Laser show that the sector is doing intensive work on further industrial-scale implementation, focusing on all of the technology’s current challenges,” said Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director of the VDW. “This will progress the bandwidth of future applications.”
In attendance at this year’s award presentation, Jason Jones, Ph.D., Co-founder & CEO, Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies Ltd., reflected on winning the inaugural IAMA. “It is impossible to emphasize how transformational receiving this award has been to our company. It absolutely made a step change difference in many ways and essentially put us on the map. We thank all those involved – AMT, VDW, Gardner, VDI and CECIMO – for sponsoring this award.”
