“Additive Manufacturing Application Engineer” program designed to accelerate customer’s learning curve, paving the way for quicker AM business success.

EOS, the global technology leader in the industrial 3D printing of metals and polymers, today announces a first of its kind 3D printing training course, collaborating with two leading universities in the UK and Germany.

For this six month 'Additive Manufacturing Application Engineer' program, EOS will work directly with the University of Wolverhampton, a long-standing partner of EOS with an existing high-level metal AM expertise especially in automotive, Formula 1 and aerospace and SRH Hochschule Berlin, one of the leading private universities in Germany, specializing in international business administration and management.

“One of the major barriers for metal Additive Manufacturing technology is the shortage of AM application engineering experts at a global level. The program aims to empower the future generation of AM engineers through specialized training and expertise," comments Güngör Kara, Director Global Application & Consulting at EOS.

And he adds: “With this initiative, we also want our customers to turn this AM knowledge into a competitive advantage. They will save time and money, as well as boosting their business productivity with industrial 3D printing.

The first participants will start their expert training program in May 2017, with a maximum number of eight participants per course. More information about this program can be found here.

From trial and error to a rapid, structured AM learning curve

Until recently, an application engineer would need up to two years' experience to acquire adequate AM knowledge. This program is designed to reduce the learning curve to six months, and lower the general threshold that companies are facing when implementing Additive Manufacturing technology. The program will also substantially reduce the investment risk for entering AM production. Based on the trained workforce, a customer is now able to bring innovative AM metal applications to their industries as well as introducing both radical innovations and serial manufacturing more rapidly.

Understand, improve and implement AM

In close cooperation with both universities, the course offers a mix of intense theoretical and practical learning blocks at the partner universities, at EOS and in-house with the customer. After a period of six months, participants receive their “AM Application Engineer" certification.

• Part 1: Understanding AM (at EOS and in-house): Participants are being introduced to the fundamentals of Additive manufacturing, including the definition and development of the right applications for the use of this technology
• Part 2: Improve knowledge and technical AM competence (at the University of Wolverhampton and in-house): during the next four months, participants will improve their know-how in process development (e.g. defining parameters, supports), material characteristics (e.g. metallurgy, powder, density, post processing), quality assurance (destructive and non-destructive testing, CT-Scanning etc.) and how to leverage the freedom of designing for AM
• Part 3: Implement AM (at SRH): during the last week of this educational program, participants will attend strategy courses focusing on how to implement AM in the organization, how to generate and communicate AM business models and how this will all affect internal value chains.Güngör Kara concludes: “The program is giving engineers the technical expertise to master AM more efficiently. As such, it supports them to develop and improve AM applications, implement serial production, optimize innovation and keep their organization well ahead of their respective competition.

“This is a proven short-cut for our customers - they can build new AM metal-based competencies internally. This will make the difference when it comes to introducing AM driven innovations. We believe that the industrial champions of the next decade have to build up their AM technology competencies in this decade.

The complete Additive Minds offerings, including the additional trainings, innovation centers and consulting can be found here.

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