As you may know, each country hosts a number of 3D printing/AM events, which ambition to accelerate the learning curve of AM/3D printing locally.
In the BENELUX region (made up of Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg), one of the most-widely known events was Rapidpro – organized by Mikrocentrum –, a 3D printing event that was not solely focused on AM, but rather encompassed several technology and solutions from the manufacturing industry.
2020 saw a change in the management, and missing opportunities to properly hold a 3D printing-dedicated event by the organization. This enabled 3D Delta Week to position itself as an industry event that could be interesting to attend in the region last year.
By joining forces with  Brainport Development , Mikrocentrum is refining its position on the trade events market dedicated to AM.
 Brainport Development is an economic development agency of the high-tech region Brainport Eindhoven that develops the regional economic strategy, creates and facilitates projects, offers business advice and innovative business premises and promotes Brainport Eindhoven in the Netherlands and abroad.
Both partners state they will strengthen and support each other. They ambition to “bring the value chain of Additive Manufacturing to a global market and thus optimize the ecosystem.”
“Therefore, it is essential to have the right knowledge, partners, and inspiration to be able to innovate constantly,” their letter of intent states. “By connecting the networks of both organizations, we can further stimulate collaboration and innovation.”
As the organization is also one of the founding partners of 3D Delta Week, our guess would have been that Mikrocentrum would be involved at some point in the second edition of this industry event. But right now, the cooperation aims at developing a “learning community” that contributes to the international positioning and competence development of each other’s target groups.
To do so, one of their key focus will be to lay opportunities around existing events such as the Plastics Fair and the Precision Fair. In addition, the initiators are looking at a new initiative with the working title ‘AM4Production‘, and additional trade fairs, open days, trade missions, and theme days are being considered. Joint master classes, lectures, and specific new components for these events around themes such as digitization, system integration of end-to-end production lines, and the digital additive manufacturing factory come to mind. Joint communication around the program components is also being worked on.
“The industry has now fully developed Additive Manufacturing techniques into a production technology with which you can make complex, high-quality end products with a sound business case. The new possibilities for design freedom and ecologically responsible production are within reach. Now it is a matter of taking the next step together: implementing AM technology in the complex practice of the value chain. No one can do this alone; we need each other and must make agreements with each other. On the one hand, within the AM ecosystem, and on the other, to accelerate the conventional industry on this new track. Collaborations like this one with Brainport Development and its network of ambitious manufacturing companies are essential for this. As a human capital partner for industry, we are happy to facilitate the much-needed acceleration of exchanging ideas, inspiration, and knowledge, Director Bert-Jan Woertman of Mikrocentrum concludes.
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