As the temperature gets colder and the darkness settles over the Nordics, we wanted to capture some of the warm and joyous moments of 2022. In this Quarterly AM Review, we will look back once more and set the aims for 2023, which will be an exciting and eventful year.   

Though 2022 is soon coming to an end, our 3D printing machines still run at full speed. The Christmas feeling got real when we printed aluminum Christmas ornaments the other week. It made us realize again how fun it is to work in additive. One day you are printing a lightweight flying object, and the other day an ornament for a Christmas tree. All AM applications are unique, and so are our clients and projects.  

The winning design of Etteplans annual Christmas Ornament competition.

Being isolated during the extraordinary times of the Covid-19 pandemic made us appreciate interaction with our clients and shareholders and forced us to explore new ways of working together. The CXO conference in April became the very first event in almost two years we met face-to-face with our shareholders and partners. The discussions during such events are not comparable to online meetings and everyone appreciated the opportunity. Because even though the world had been locked down, our shareholders proved they had kept themselves busy at home offices or behind facemasks at their production facilities. During the conference, we got insights into the developments within the AMEXCI shareholder group and external growth. Discussing the topics of technology, digitalization and sustainability.   

The CXO Conference took place in Stockholm 2022 and was attended by shareholders, partners and the AMEXCI team.

Sustainability is a focal point in the overall AMEXCI strategy. We walk by our machines in the lab every day, met by the green light when a print job is finalized. Our job is to understand the impact of additive manufacturing and what the technology can bring in more sustainable production. We continuously work actively to improve through our work with the management system ISO14001. It’s all about doing what we can and learning along the way. Awareness of our footprints and raising awareness on how we can decrease them is one step in the right direction.  

We immediately consider our strategies and journey forward in AM when speaking of direction. AMEXCI works in different ways to industrialize AM in the Nordics, where another crucial area is research. We always strive to make research more accessible and applicable to industries. In August, a press release launched the project InShaPe, funded by the EU with EUR 6.8 million. AMEXCI is a proud partner in this project which aims to make metal-based additive manufacturing faster, cheaper, and more sustainable. You can read more about the project here.  

The InShaPe project aims to make metal-based additive manufacturing faster, cheaper and more sustainable.

This research topic aligns with the trends spotted at Formnext 2022 and indicates an exciting development. As we all know, AM technology has snowballed over the past few years. As a result, more and more stakeholders are now focusing on automatization and other solutions to make existing processes, hardware, or software solutions more efficient or fit for the industry. 

So, what about AMEXCI’s vision of industrializing additive manufacturing and future-proof Nordic Industries? Well, in December, we celebrated our fifth anniversary as a company which was a significant milestone for us. AMEXCI was initially said to be co-funded for five years, but here we are still. Throughout these five years, we have worked hard to support and meet our customers at their level, focusing solely on their needs. In June, we hosted an advanced learners Bootcamp for experts in AM and gave them a design challenge at the end of the week, utilizing their newly learned skills.  We took part in engaging discussions and were confronted with challenging questions. We look at this positively since it indicates true AM advancement among our clients. Next year we will continue to host basic training for beginners in AM, advanced workshops for experts, and everything in between. 

On the last of Bootcamp 2022 the participants got to test their printed parts which they optimized and designed as part of the challenge.

As the learning curve seems to peak among our customers, we also need to ensure we have enough capacity to deliver additive manufacturing services to all. Why we have opened an AMEXCI office in Tampere, Finland. With machine capacity, AM expertise, and a closer connection to the Finnish market, which is currently undergoing an exciting transformation, focusing on ramping up industrial manufacturing and export.  

The first industrial 3D printing machine arrived in Tampere August 2022.

We see this as a first step in an exciting direction for AMEXCI, our shareholders, and customers. We look forward to what 2023 will bring and hope you will come along on this exciting journey. Until then, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!