Mohammad Ehteshami, Vice President & General Manager, and thought-leaders from business, politics, technology and academia gathered for the opening and discussed the potential that additive manufacturing will bring to business and industries.
GE Additive’s Customer Experience Centers are designed to help customers understand the additive process; from design to prototyping to production and guide them along the way. Customers benefit from hands-on training and instruction at the facility, covering additive design, machine operations and support.
The Customer Experience Center in Munich, launched with an investment of $ 15 million, will employ up to 50 GE Additive employees, including technicians and engineers specializing in additive design and production. 10 additive machines from Germany’s Concept Laser and Sweden’s Arcam EBM have been installed. The center serves as an enabler for customers to accelerate the adoption of additive in their business, regardless of where they are on their additive journey. The facility enables customers to start with a concept, design and build a prototype, and then move all the way through production, while enabling them to think through industrializing processes and helping improve their products and supply chain.
The Munich center also offers a modern educational facility for their Additive Academy – GE Additive’s customer training team. All customers are welcome to visit the center to collaborate with the local team on additive design, process development, prototyping and industrializing their additive operations.
More than 150 guest and dignitaries from business, politics and academia came to Munich for the opening, and got a chance to tour the facility after a ribbon cutting. Guests also heard from different speakers, including representatives from BMW and Oerlikon, on how they see the future of additive manufacturing.
GE Additive continues to grow its global infrastructure – as evidenced by the new Munich center, as well as by its on-going expansion of the Concept Laser headquarters in Lichtenfels. The concept of GE Additive’s Customer Experience Centers is an integral part of GE Additive’s strategy to accelerate the adoption rate of additive manufacturing with businesses worldwide, allowing customers to experience first-hand the value that additive manufacturing can bring. After the first U.S.-based Center in Pittsburgh became part of the GE Additive family in May 2017, Munich is now the first international center – with other GE Additive centers planned worldwide to boost the use of additive manufacturing in different regions.
_{(Source: GE Additive)}