A decade of rapid progress in (metal) additive manufacturing has delivered faster machines and increasingly repeatable processes. Yet for most manufacturers, the path from a successful prototype to true series production remains frustratingly elusive.
Leading a group active across healthcare (50%), software (25%), and 3D printing services (25%), Brigitte de Vet-Veithen, CEO of Materialise, sees the AM adoption gap from every angle. The bottleneck, in her view, is no longer in the hardware. It’s in the workflows and in the language we use to talk about them.
With a quarter of Materialise’s activity dedicated to software, the company has long flagged the same core challenge: enabling software solutions to talk to 3D printers and to each other. That challenge is now being tackled collectively through the Additive Manufacturing Alliance, born from AM I Navigator and Leading Minds, focused on supporting companies along the path toward industrializing AM.
Simplifying adoption is what de Vet-Veithen stands for. And when asked what she’d change if she could, her wish list is both practical and urgent:
For healthcare: funding, because the value of AM is real but investment hasn’t caught up. For the broader industry: a corrected perception of AM among investors. And above all: an open mindset, where partnerships and open systems become the norm.
Watch the full video interview below to hear her take on what scaling metal AM into production actually requires.
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