Germany: 3D Printing Wacker to Inaugurate US-based Printing Lab by Year End

The facility will be set up to expand the company’s Aceo 3D printing services for silicone rubber and also serve the growing demand for additive manufacturing solutions in North America.

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Munich/Germany– Wacker, the Munich-based chemical group, recently announced the opening of a US-based printing lab later this year. With this, the company plans to expand its Aceo3D printing services for silicone rubber.The facility, which will be located at Wacker’s R&D center for silicones in Ann Arbor (MI), is the company’s first regional 3D printing lab outside Germany.

Complementing the Aceo Campus in Burghausen, Germany, the lab will serve the growing demand for additive manufacturing solutions in North America. The firm has earmarked a single digit million US-Dollar amount for the investment.

The new lab will be equipped with two 3D printers, each of which will be able to process a broad range of silicone rubber with different Shore A hardnesses and in varying colours, including special media resistant FVMQ grades. Aceo’sunique additive manufacturing technology for silicone elastomers enables unprecedented product designs and complex geometries for rapid prototyping purposes. The technology can also be used for serial manufacturing and cost-efficient production of replacement parts.

While Aceo will continue to produce and deliver printed silicone components from its production facility in Germany, the new lab in Ann Arbor will offer technical service and advice to partners and customers throughout North America. Thus, providing local hands-on experience with the firm’s unique 3D printing technology.

Locating the Aceo 3D printing lab at the company’s R&D facility for silicones in Ann Arbor complements the company’s strategic business model of being close to its customers and serving regional market trends.

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