Additive Manufacturing is not subject to design restrictions and breaks down the boundaries imposed by conventional manufacturing methods. The latter tend to be geared towards high quantities: design changes cannot be implemented at short notice and individualized serial production involves considerable effort. This puts pressure on companies in areas such as jewellery and watches, footwear and web applications: they struggle with increasing raw material prices, rising demand for individualized products and a need for more flexible and decentralized serial production.

Additive Manufacturing provides new solutions to meet these very challenges. It opens up a whole new universe of possibilities for designers and design engineers. Users can turn virtually any conceivable shape into a real product – economically, flexibly, quickly and involving minimum use of material. By means of Additive Manufacturing, objects are built up layer by layer in a single process. Material is applied selectively as required, enabling products to be manufactured which are both stable and very light.

Additive Manufacturing is based on an entirely digital process, ensuring consistent high quality, optimum scalability and short lead times. Production is economical from a batch size of one. Some lifestyle companies have already set up special departments in which product designers systematically sound out the possibilities of the new technology. They use Additive Manufacturing to produce furnishing items such as lamps and chairs as well as fashion articles such as jewellery, handbags and glasses featuring unusual shapes and structures. In view of the benefits it offers, EOS Additive Manufacturing will become established on an equal footing with conventional production techniques in the years to come. This will lead to novel applications in the future: products such as footwear and watches will be configured online and then printed out in the store.