DEMAT GmbH (Frankfurt, Germany) and Wohlers Associates, Inc. have announced the 14th Annual International Wohlers Conference to be held at EuroMold 2012 in Frankfurt, Germany. This year’s conference, titled Advances in Metal Additive Manufacturing, takes place on Thursday, November 29. The EuroMold trade fair is November 27-30 at the Exhibition Center Frankfurt.

Past conferences have featured major developments and trends in rapid product development, additive manufacturing (AM), and 3D printing. This year’s event will focus on high-value metal parts produced by additive manufacturing. Aerospace companies are hard at work qualifying materials and processes and certifying new designs. Medical companies in Europe are using AM to produce metal orthopedic implants in the tens of thousands. Metal products for consumers are also being produced by additive manufacturing. Meanwhile, new AM processes are being developed that are capable of producing relatively large metal parts at a much faster rate.

“Metal-based additive manufacturing has developed more impressively in 10 years than AM for plastics developed in more than two decades,” said Dr.-Ing. Eberhard Döring, CEO of DEMAT. Already, hundreds of thousands of series production parts have been produced in this way. “This segment of the industry has quickly gained impressive traction,” Döring stated. The degree of attention that additive manufacturing is currently receiving, including metal parts from AM systems, is at an all-time high.

The conference includes nine speakers from England, Germany, Italy, South Africa, and the USA, selected for their expertise in metal additive manufacturing. With differing backgrounds and experiences, each speaker brings a unique perspective to the event. Collectively, they represent decades of knowledge in additive manufacturing and 3D printing.

Last year, 1,324 exhibitors from 38 countries and 57,955 designers, engineers, managers, and executives from 97 countries participated in EuroMold. These individuals and organizations represent many industries, including automotive, consumer electronics, medical, aerospace, packaging, household appliances, furniture, sporting goods, and toys.

DEMAT organizes some of the most successful trade fairs in Europe and other parts of the world. For more information on the November 29 conference and EuroMold, click here. Wohlers Associates is an independent consulting firm that provides technical, marketing, and strategic advice on the new developments and trends in rapid product development, additive manufacturing, and 3D printing. For more information, visit wohlersassociates.com.