Additive manufacturing is shaping the future of industrial production

This year, the trade fair had its finger on the pulse of the times: with the pandemic not yet over and new political and economic challenges, AM can contribute in particular to decentralizing manufacturing processes and production and making supply chains more resilient, conserving resources and producing with less energy consumption in order to bring innovative new products to market faster.

This relevance of Formnext is also reflected in the results. With 802 exhibitors (2021: 606) and a gross exhibition space of 51,148 m2, the trade fair for additive manufacturing and modern production almost reached its pre-corona level. The number of trade visitors also increased again by 65.6% to 29,581 (2021: 17,859). The visitors came from 96 nations, the proportion of international visitors was 51% and 58% of exhibitors.

"We are proud that with Formnext we have once again reached the impressive level of the pre-corona period," says Sascha F. Wenzler, Vice President Formnext at the organizer Mesago Messe Frankfurt. "This proves once again how important Formnext is as the world's leading platform for the AM world and that face-to-face meetings are essential for the further development of our highly innovative industry."

The exhibiting companies included leading international companies such as 3D Systems, Additive Industries, AddUp, Arburg, BigRep, Carbon, Desktop Metal, DMG Mori, Dyemansion, EOS, Farsoon, Formlabs, GE Additive, HP, Keyence, Markforged, Materialise, Renishaw, Ricoh, Siemens, Sisma, SLM Solutions, Stratasys, Trumpf, Voxeljet, XJet and Zeiss. BASF, Covestro, Evonik, GKN Sinter Metals Components, Henkel, Höganäs, Linde, Mitsubishi Chemical, Nikon, Oerlikon, Sandvik, SMS Group and many more also presented innovations along the entire process chain.

The numerous world premieres and innovative developments include new AM technologies, new and improved AM systems, new materials from wood to ceramics, software solutions, service offerings, post-processing solutions and much more.

Partner country France

Partner country France presented itself at Formnext as one of the most important providers and users of additive manufacturing solutions. In total, more than 40 French companies, associations and research institutions were represented at Formnext. French AM manufacturers such as AddUp, Lynxter, Constructions3D, Pollen AM and VLM Robotics as well as material manufacturers Fabulous and Constellium and many more showcased new developments and impressive additive know-how.

The next Formnext will take place from November 7 to 10, 2023 in Frankfurt am Main.