These are the finalists for the Formnext Awards 2025

The finalists in the six award categories show the way forward for additive manufacturing. The innovations not only deal with current challenges such as increased sustainability and more efficient production, but also offer very specific applications and specialized manufacturing solutions - for example for robotics or the dental sector.

Formnext visitors can experience all the finalists at the Formnext Awards special show (Hall 11.0, Stand D82). The winners will be announced and the awards ceremony will take place on November 20 at the Industry Stage (Hall 11.0, D72). In addition, the finalists can now be discovered on the Formnext website. Voting is possible for all categories until 20.11.2025, with the public's vote counting as an additional jury vote.

AMbassador Award

The AMbassador Award recognizes outstanding individuals or organizations that have made a unique impact on the industry and users through innovative training and education approaches or their personal advocacy. The finalist is Naiara Zubizarreta, Director of Addimat, the Spanish association for additive manufacturing, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Since 2015, she has been leading the strategy and growth of the Spanish AM ecosystem and has built a strong community that now has more than 100 members.

Irena Heuzeroth, engineer and Senior Trainer Education Injection Molding | Additive Manufacturing, also made it to the finals with her commitment to training. The IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt and Das Kunststoff-Zentrum (SKZ) jointly offer the practical course of study to become a "Certified Industrial Technician specializing in Additive Manufacturing". The training program covers the entire 3D printing process chain - from the materials used and their processing to design and processes and topics such as energy, hydraulics and occupational safety.

Gustavo Melo from RWTH Aachen University also wants to make new approaches to AM training possible: He has developed a technology-supported and data-driven methodology.

Design Award

The following finalists in the Design Award category impressed with their exceptional AM designs and AM products: The Limb Kind Foundation, together with Hewlett-Packard and global partners, has launched a 3D printing project in Kenya. Customized prosthetic socket parts for children were produced abroad and transported to Kenya, where they are assembled free of charge by orthopaedic technicians and fitted to the children.

IKM Flux, EOS, Valland and ToffeeX have collaborated to develop a flux vaporizer that measures the energy content of LNG gas much more accurately than conventional devices. The vaporizer, which uses thermo-fluidic topology optimization among other things, can eliminate minor but sometimes very expensive measurement inaccuracies in LNG deliveries.

The Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Art and Design has developed the "Grabbit" hand therapy gadgets, which are designed to help train the hands - for example in the event of illness, injury or age-related weakness. TPU lattice structures and PA12 are combined with ash wood.

(R)Evolution Award

Products, technologies or services that offer particular added value for the user are honored with the (R)Evolution Award. This year's finalists focus on innovations from industrial manufacturing and the dental sector. As part of its Inov.iQ project, the Portuguese company Erofio has 3D-printed a mold for a 100-ton injection molding machine entirely out of metal. The mold, which was created in collaboration with injection molding machine manufacturer Engel, is designed for ultra-thin parts with wall thicknesses of just 1 mm. Thanks to the lightweight design, the tool weight was reduced by 75 percent and energy consumption by 30 percent. At the same time, productivity increased thanks to shorter cycle times.

Laempe Mössner Sinto has developed a 3D printing system for the mass production of sand cores and successfully put it into operation at the BMW Group. The system produces more than 1,100 cores per day, making it one of the fastest binder jetting printers in the world.

With the CoriTec Mythos, Imes-icore presents the world's first fully automated hybrid manufacturing system that combines additive coating (PEM) and precise milling/grinding in a 5-axis process. This technology enables multi-colored, multi-material dental restorations with the highest surface quality, accuracy of fit and aesthetics - from crowns and bridges to implant structures.

Rookie Award

The Rookie Award honors young individuals with promising business ideas who have not yet founded their company or who founded it less than a year ago. The three finalists offer innovative solutions for the medical and dental sector as well as technical optimization of 3D printers: Fidentis' digital production system uses multi-material PBF-LB/M, robotics and automation to produce high-quality, multi-material cobalt-chrome and gold prostheses for the dental sector on a large scale.

To improve the treatment of respiratory distress, for example, 3DMyMask uses 3D facial scanning and AM to produce customized silicone masks. The project is backed by neonatologists, industrial engineers and entrepreneurs who are embedded in the IAM3DHUB ecosystem.

Tesseract has developed easily accessible linear motors that are optimized for FDM printers. The self-correcting motors move directly over a magnetic rail without mechanical transmission, enabling faster and more precise movements.

Start-up Award supported by Fluxo Technologies

With its volumetric additive manufacturing (VAM), Perfi Technologies promises to outperform conventional 3D printing by "printing" every point of an object simultaneously instead of layer by layer. This is said to reduce production time from hours to seconds, eliminate the need for support structures and minimize post-processing.

The young Hungarian company Allonic has also developed a new AM technology: 3D Tissue Braiding is a new, textile-based additive manufacturing technology and aims to make complex robotics simple enough for mass production. In addition, the software tools from Swiss company Nureo AG promise to fully automate the 3D design of parts.

The Thai start-up OsseoLabs aims to improve orthopaedic and maxillofacial surgery with its AI-supported surgical planning and 3D-printed, patient-specific implants. According to OsseoLabs, the OsseoMatrix porous scaffold and OsseoVision platform improve precision and reduce surgery time by 50 percent and planning time by 90 percent. Over 200 clinical cases have already been completed.

Biomotion Technologies FlexCo from Vienna has also focused on the healthcare sector and developed a platform that automates and standardizes the bioprinting of 3D tissue models. The aim is to make drug screening more reliable.

Sustainability Award supported by Renishaw

Smart Materials 3D Printing, Continuum Powders and EOS have reached the final of the Sustainability Award, which recognizes AM applications and products based on their product life cycle. Smart Materials 3D develops innovative, biodegradable 3D printing materials from regional agro-industrial waste materials, thereby making an important contribution to a sustainable circular economy in additive manufacturing.

With its Greyhound Melt-to-Powder (M2P) platform and OptiVantage quality framework, Continuum Powders converts high-quality waste into ready-to-use metal powders.

EOS presents its filter system for the laser sintering of metals, which separates usable powder that is removed with the exhaust air flow and neutralizes reactive by-products of metal-based AM such as condensate, soot and ultra-fine particles directly in the process. These are considered hazardous waste and cause high disposal costs, while recovering the reusable powder saves costs and CO₂ emissions. The new recirculating air filter system that EOS is presenting at Formnext 2025 converts highly reactive condensates into stable metal oxides that can then be disposed of safely. According to EOS, this filtration and the integrated oxidation technology not only protect the environment but are also economically sustainable.

Further information, online voting and presentation of the finalists at formnext.com/awards