Launched last year as a replacement for the Start-up Challenge, the Formnext Awards recognize innovations, sustainable concepts, and special achievements that have had a significant impact on the industry. This competition includes 6 categories that put the spotlight on AM champions.
This year, the prizes went to Irena Heuzeroth, SKZ KFE GmbH (AMbassador Award), Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd (Design Award), Laempe Mössner Sinto GmbH ((R)evolution Award), IAM3DHUB – Project „3DMyMask“ (Rookie Award), PERFI Technologies (Start-up Award), and EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems (Sustainability Award).
Their trophies were designed by SUTOSUTO and produced by FKM Additive Manufacturing, with Renishaw and Fluxo Technologies also sponsoring the awards.
AMbassador Award
The AMbassador Award recognizes outstanding individuals or organizations that have had a unique impact on the AM industry and its users through personal advocacy or innovative approaches to training and education. The winner in 2025 was Irena Heuzeroth.
An engineer and senior AM trainer in the field of injection molding, Irena Heuzeroth has been very involved in the practical study course “Certified Industrial Technician Specializing in Additive Manufacturing”, which is offered jointly by the Würzburg-Schweinfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the SKZ.
The course covers the entire 3D Printing process chain – from the materials used, their processing, and design engineering to the various processes involved – and includes aspects such as energy, hydraulics, and occupational safety.
Design Award
The Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd won the jury over with its extraordinary AM designs to take home the 2025 Formnext Design Award. The Grabbit products developed by this university are designed to help train the hands – in the case of illness, injury, or age-related weakness, for example. Grabbit is made from a combination of TPU lattice structures, PA12, and ash wood.
(R)Evolution Award
The winner of the 2025 (R)Evolution Award is the Laempe Mössner Sinto GmbH. This prize recognizes pioneering products, technologies, or services that offer particular added value to the user.
This company has developed a 3D Printing system for the large-scale production of sand cores, which it has successfully put into operation at the BMW Group. The system produces more than 1,100 cores per day, making it one of the fastest binder jetting printers in the world.
According to Jury member Prof. Jennifer Johns from the University of Bristol Business School, this system demonstrates the applicability of 3D Printing across different sectors and to solve problems that conventional manufacturing cannot.”
Editorial clarification: In the organiser’s announcement, Jennifer Johns comments on the entries submitted for the (R)Evolution Award as a whole, rather than specifically on the Laempe system.
Rookie Award
IAM3DHUB – Project „3DMyMask“ is the winner of the 2025 Rookie Award, which honors individuals with promising business ideas who have not yet founded a company or did so less than a year ago.
3DMyMask uses Additive Manufacturing in combination with 3D face-scanning to produce customized silicone masks that improve the treatment of disorders like respiratory distress. Behind the project are neonatologists, industrial engineers, and entrepreneurs, all of whom are involved in the IAM3DHUB ecosystem.
Start-up Award
The Start-up Award supported by Fluxo Technologies, which honors young, inspiring companies with viable business models, was won by PERFI Technologies. With a technique it calls Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (VAM), the company is promising to significantly improve conventional 3D Printing by “printing” every point of an object simultaneously instead of layer by layer. This cuts production time from hours to just seconds while rendering support structures unnecessary and reducing post-processing to a minimum.
Sustainability Award
The Sustainability Award, supported by Renishaw, recognizes AM applications and products based not just on production processes, but the entire life cycle. The 2025 winner is EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems.
This company has developed a filter system that neutralizes condensate, soot, ultra-fine particles, and other reactive by-products of metal-based AM directly in the production process. These substances are considered hazardous waste and cause high disposal costs, not to mention CO₂ emissions due to transportation and chemical treatment.
The new recirculating air filter system that EOS is presenting at Formnext 2025 converts highly reactive particles into stable metal oxides, which can then be safely disposed of or even recycled. According to EOS, this chemical-free filtration and integrated oxidation technology not only protects the environment, but is also economically sustainable.
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