Indications of Indian AM Industry going global

It was an eye-opener of sorts visiting the Formnext show, and a validation of the fact that how this industry has grown in the past 3-4 years and seems to be getting stronger.  As part of the Indian 3D Printing Network it was a pleasure connecting with all the key stakeholders of this industry from the commercial, and academic side to understand their position on the potential of growth in this industry and their position on Indian AM.

It was proud to see Indian service bureaus participating at the show and putting Indian AM on the map at Formnext. Also after interacting with the companies for 4 days at the show it was clear that there was a market increase in the number of Indians visiting the show to see how they can invest in this space of Additive Manufacturing.  These are clear indications that the Indian industry is showing more interest and here in lies the opportunity for this technology to grow in India.

Imaginarium India, one of India’s largest service bureau and solution provider made their debut at Formnext. Kamlesh Parekh, Managing Director, Imaginarium shared that “The idea behind being present at the show for Imaginarium was to showcase their expertise on the world stage and announce to the industry that they are now ready to go global with their services”. Nishant Shah, Director, Imaginarium Rapid shared that “They also launched the Rapid Online Factory at Formnext to allow customers to access their entire suite of manufacturing services through an online interface making the process smooth”. It is also great to know that they are now one of the first service bureaus in Asia Pacific to be a benchmarked by HP.

Intech DMLS made a headline of sorts with their announcement of the partnership with DMG Mori at Formnext. With the partnership with Intech, DMG Mori wishes to strengthen their global footprint in India and accelerate innovative development in additive manufacturing.Sridhar Balaram, CEO of Intech noted, “Leveraging synergies is key, and the collaboration is a perfect fit of hardware and software. Optomet can also be applied to other key technologies of, such as Direct Energy Deposition and Binder Jetting. Optomet is a game changer for the whole additive manufacturing market.” The new Optomet software automatically calculates the optimal process parameters. This simplifies programming and results in a markedly improved surface quality as well as reproducible material properties. This is surely a stepping stone towards the industrialization of additive manufacturing in India.

Objectify Technology was the other Indian service bureau present at Formnext. Objectify is the newest entrant onto the Indian market to offer both polymer and metal AM services but they have quite a mark in the local and global markets with their investments in different technologies in past 2-3 years and have shown impressive growth. It was great meeting the Co-Founder and Director, Ankit Sahu and discussing with him the different ideas to catalyse the Indian industry to adopt AM.

This being said it is only early days for the Indian AM industry and it is a going to be a challenging journey. It cannot be missed that in Europe, USA or closer home in Israel there is a strong partnership between the research institutes and the industry especially the OEMs or machine manufacturers. It is very important that this ecosystem is developed here in India for us to put more innovations into the market and put India really in the map in regard to Additive Manufacturing. More local OEMs or material providers manufacturing more industrial solutions will also lead to larger proliferation of this technology and the real industrialization of AM in India.

At the Indian 3D Printing Network it will always be our aim to create the conducive ecosystem in India through are various initiatives to ensure this technology grow in India in a sustainable manner.