Fraunhofer Group for Production
Additive Manufacturing – From Process Development to Industrial Production Chains
Companies are under constant pressure to innovate faster, build more resilient supply chains, and maintain control over quality, documentation, and costs. Additive manufacturing offers enormous design freedom, yet in practice many challenges arise not from part geometry but from insufficient process stability, poorly integrated process steps, and the leap from individual applications to reproducible series production.
This is precisely where we, the member institutes of the Fraunhofer Production Alliance, come in: We develop and optimize AM processes (metal, polymer, and additional technologies) systematically—from parameters and materials to robust process control. In industrial projects, depending on the application, lead times have been reduced by up to 90%, part costs by up to 50%, and wire‑based deposition processes have enabled material efficiencies of up to 100%. With data‑driven monitoring, digital models, and industry‑oriented validation, we create the foundation for reproducible quality, higher throughput, and manageable process risks—whether for new applications, scaling, or transition into regulated environments.
For industrialization, we view AM as an end‑to‑end process chain: from pre‑processing through the build process to the ready‑to‑use component. We integrate downstream operations such as surface and dimensional finishing, support removal, heat treatment, and functional coatings into continuous, (semi‑)automated production concepts. The result is integrated AM production lines that can be embedded into existing manufacturing and quality infrastructures, featuring defined interfaces and transparent quality assurance—mapping the path from idea to industrial production.
