This day was awaited with excitement and much anticipation by all participants of the trade fair - exhibitors, visitors and especially the trade fair team: Today, the "premiere" of Formnext as a presence trade fair successfully started after a purely digital event in 2020.
The good visitor response, a large number of world premieres and a wealth of new products along the entire AM process chain created an atmosphere of renewed optimism on the trade fair floor, which this future-oriented industry around additive manufacturing had been so eagerly missing. The range of over 600 exhibitors (55% from abroad) at Formnext is also enriched by the extensive TCT conference programme and the diverse supporting programme. Thus, already on the first day, Formnext ensured good business, an intensive professional exchange and valuable people-to-people encounters.
Architecture, the automotive industry, aviation, mechanical engineering, medical technology, furniture, sportswear, wind power: Formnext 2021 will showcase an incomparable variety of industrial applications of additive manufacturing. Key topics include greater efficiency and thus the expansion of additive manufacturing to further areas of application, the creation of global decentralised manufacturing and thus the de-centering of supply chains, as well as the topic of sustainability.
Important innovations and new manufacturing systems come from additive heavyweights such as 3D Systems, Additive Industries, Addup, Arburg, BigRep, Covestro, Carbon, Cubicure, Desktop Metal, DMG Mori, Dyemansion, EOS, Evonik, ExOne, Farsoon, Formlabs, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, GE Additive, HP, Incus, Keyence, Materialise, Nexa3D, Renishaw, Siemens, Sigma Labs, Sisma, Stratasys, Trumpf, Voxeljet, XJet and many others. Numerous companies along the entire process chain will also be showing exciting innovations: BASF Printing Solutions has developed an individually fitting bicycle saddle in cooperation with Atum3D, Hyperganic and Innovationlab. The Austrian company Lithoz is showing how several materials such as ceramics, copper and others can be efficiently combined in a 3D-printed part. US company Markforged's new FX20 3D printer enables significantly faster production of composite materials, while Wayland Additive from the UK promises more efficient additive manufacturing of metal parts with its Neubeam process. Ricoh will also be presenting a new binder jetting technology.
Italy is the first European partner country to present itself at Formnext and impressively demonstrates the international significance of the local manufacturers and users of additive technologies. For example, the start-up Prima Additive, a subsidiary of the Prima Industrie group, will be represented at Formnext with numerous premieres of innovative production machines. Italian AM manufacturers such as WASP, Roboze and others will also be showing exciting new developments. In addition, the industrial company Lincotek has made a name for itself with extensive AM production, especially in medical technology, and will be presenting its world-leading know-how.
Until 19 November 2021, the world's leading trade fair for additive manufacturing and the next generation of industrial production will make the trade fair metropolis of Frankfurt the global centre of innovative production solutions. Formnext takes place under 2G conditions.