| contents | news | events | advertisers | website | e-newsletter |
MTC3: Perspectives on industrialisation
The third Munich Technology Conference: The challenge of AM adoption and the inside track on aviation Now in its third year, the Munich Technology Conference series has achieved a remarkable status in its short history. It is recognised not only for bringing together the most powerful and influential minds in the international AM community, but for engaging them in open and broad-ranging discussions on the future of the industry. It is also an event that unashamedly ‘wears its heart on its sleeve’, having grown from the optimism of MTC1 to MTC2’s call for vital collaboration, and a ‘reality check’ in the face of economic uncertainty at MTC3. Metal AM magazine’s Emily-Jo Hopson reports.
The third Munich Technology Conference (MTC3), organised by Oerlikon and its partners GE Additive, Siemens, Linde, McKinsey, TÜV SÜD and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), took place in Munich, Germany, from October 8–10, 2019. Since its inaugural outing in 2017, which welcomed around 600 attendees, the Munich Technology Conference series has become one of the most anticipated events in the Additive Manufacturing calendar, with 2019’s event reporting visitor numbers in excess of 1,500 from thirty-two countries. With the title ‘Additive Manufacturing: Accelerating the Industrialization – A Reality Check’, the MTC3 conference programme once again featured a number of prominent speakers from industry, academia and politics for frank and in-depth discussions on the current state of the Additive Manufacturing industry, barriers to full industrialisation, and the strategies which companies can take to help drive it towards this goal. Welcoming attendees to MTC3, Prof Michael Süss, Chairman of the Board at Oerlikon, stated, “Three years ago, when we started MTC,
Vol. 5 No. 4 © 2019 Inovar Communications Ltd
there was a little less headwind and a little more tailwind. Since 2017, we have seen outstanding achievements which are really widening the scope of Additive Manufacturing. However, innovation is ‘a shy deer’, and when you have an economic crisis ahead – when the top economic powers of the USA and China are imposing taxes on one another, and German cars
are seen as a threat to the national security of the USA, then something is not right. Innovation needs an environment where people are proudly and strongly moving forward; where they are ready to invest money in things which may materialise in three, five or ten years down the road. When people see negative indications, they will slow down.”
Fig. 1 MTC3 took place in Munich, Germany, October 8–10, 2019
Metal Additive Manufacturing | Winter 2019
83