2017_en_edito
The next conference will be held on the 21, 22, 23th June 2016 at Ecole Centrale Paris
The European Forum on Additive Manufacturing has been organized since 1992 by the AFPR.
Editorial:
The European Forum of Additive Manufacturing (EFAM), organised by the French Rapid Prototyping and additive manufacturing Association (AFPR) will take place at Centrale Supélec in Châtenay-Malabry, close to Paris.
Every year, this event is the place to be for the national, european and international communities. Four years ago, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of AFPR, with the presence of most of the international specialists representing their countries within GARPA (Global Alliance of Rapid Prototyping Associations). Two years ago, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first contemporary patent related to additive manufacturing (especially to stereophotolithography) deposited in 1984 by Jean-Claude ANDRE, Olivier DEWITTE and Alain LE MEHAUTE.
This year again, the numerous presentations will be of exceptional quality because delivered by national and international specialists of the domain. Each presentation will be proposed to all participants with a simultaneous translation (French-English). Many of the key actors contributing to the actual dynamic development of additive manufacturing technologies and of their use will share their experience and vision on the current trends of progress of additive manufacturing and of its applications. They will explain how additive manufacturing is at the heart of the digital chain and why it provides unique possibilities for diversity and complexity of shapes and properties of manufactured objects.
A session will be dedicated to the digital chain, data and information formats, design methods and tools and more especially object shapes and material design, with an efficient help from topological optimization and simulation tools. Indeed, designing an object for additive manufacturing needs new methods to control product diversity and complexity. Other sessions will offer somr presentations related to the very last evolution trends of technologies and materials. Other ones will show to what extent that the applications today concern always more and more sectors and how additive manufacturing is impacting day-to-day practices and the value chains. A session will provide answers on the progresses in the broad field of healthcare. Different actors of Ars Mathematica association will offer nice contributions on artistic creations with additive manufacturing. Finally, democratization of additive manufacturing, as 3D printing, will be illustrated through different examples impacting for some of them our everyday life. Many examples will show how and why additive manufacturing provides competitive advantages, sometimes with a mastered industrial risk and a production-on-demand approach to produce locally.
In parallel to the conferences, the participants will have the possibility to discover and appreciate, on a large free of access demonstration space, numerous parts and machines, some of them from the last generation ones presented for the first time in France. In addition, some users, some service providers, some material venders, some software editors, some research laboratories, all will show the wealth and the dynamic progress of additive manufacturing domain.
Before this three-day conference, some of the French actors contributing to research for additive manufacturing will organize a doctoral workshop. This workshop will be for free but by invitation. PhD candidates will present their research work to others and to some more experienced researchers. They are also encouraged to propose a paper for presentation during the conferences.
So, this event will be as usually a major event for the additive manufacturing world in a period when innovation and fabrication of high value objects are strong promising competitiveness vectors and key stakes for industry especially in Europe.
AFPR and Centrale Supélec hope to welcome you soon !
Alain Bernard.
