Today's industrial production is in the midst of a dynamic environment that is characterized by ongoing trends towards customer-side individualization options, shorter product life cycles and the digitalization of value chains. To cope with the associated acceleration of development and production processes, additive manufacturing processes such as 3D-FLM printing have long since become an integral part of the industry and have developed into a common tool for the production of prototypes and special constructions. However, this advance in additive manufacturing also requires increased consideration of the development of the materials to be processed, which have a significant influence on the final quality of printed objects. Various areas of application in different market segments are creating a high demand for resistant and sustainable printing materials that are both cost-effective and easy to process. In order to meet this demand, a holistic view of the entire 3D printing process chain is required, which takes into account both additive manufacturing and the interdependencies of the upstream material development steps, thus opening up new potential for cross-process control and optimization.

Daniel Helmberger

o.Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Christian Stary