The Leading Minds and AM I Navigator initiatives have created the Additive Manufacturing Alliance to collaborate on selected joint activities that accelerate the industrial adoption of additive manufacturing.
Both expect to continue to operate and engage independently 'where appropriate', but believe their complementary approaches and areas of focus will present effective collaboration opportunities. One example is Leading Minds' efforts to build understanding of AM's potential and support companies to overcome initial adoption barriers, while AM I Navigator provides information on real-world use cases and 'transformation insights.'
Leading Minds was established at Formnext 2024 to bring together eight leading additive manufacturing firms to address barriers to adoption. AM I Navigator, meanwhile, launched 12 months earlier and places its focus on advancing the additive manufacturing maturity of parties across the value chain. By aligning their efforts, the Alliance supports the 'shared objective of advancing additive manufacturing as a core industrial technology and enabling its scalable adoption across industries.'
Initial joint activities of the Additive Manufacturing Alliance will focus on knowledge exchange, joint industry communication, and supporting companies along their path toward industrialising additive manufacturing.
"Our shared goal is to make additive manufacturing more accessible, less complex, and more integrated into everyday industrial production," says Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, CEO of Materialise, on behalf of the Additive Manufacturing Alliance. "Together, we can help more companies across a wider variety of industries benefit from the flexibility, efficiency, and innovation that AM enables."
Sam Davies
Since Siemens, DyeMansion, HP, BASF Forward AM, and EOS launched AM I Navigator in 2023, the initiative is said to have supported multiple industrial transformation programs, with companies using its maturity model to benchmark current AM capabilities, align investments across the process chain, and derive clear roadmaps towards higher levels of automation, quality and economic viability. Materialise, AMTPro, AZO, Capgemini and BCG have all joined the effort since 2023, with Wohlers Associates, powered by ASTM International, joining the effort last month.
"Via the newly launched AM I Navigator website, companies worldwide can independently and free of charge assess their additive manufacturing maturity and explore transformational insights derived from proven industrial applications," says Karsten Heuser, Vice President Additive Manufacturing at Siemens. “The assessment tools are voluntary resources designed to help companies of all sizes from startups to global manufacturers benchmark their capabilities and identify improvement opportunities.”
Leading Minds, meanwhile, is made up of Ansys, EOS, HP, Materialise, Nikon SLM, Renishaw, Stratasys, and ATLIX (formerly Trumpf Additive Manufacturing). Its first initiative centred on addressing the fragmentation and complexity of AM terminology with a common language framework that enables manufacturers and technology providers to communicate more clearly and consistently. Since its introduction, the framework has been expanded to cover all domains of the additive manufacturing production process and is 'already being actively used with customers who value its ability to make conversations about AM clearer, standardised, and actionable.'
Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group has become the consortium's newest member, with Dean Bartles, who recently became an AMGTA Board Member, set to represent the organisation within Leading Minds.
