30 April 2025
- The European Defence Fund (EDF) project DISCMAM was featured at the 3rd European Military Additive Manufacturing Symposium, with the consortium presenting and showcasing the project at a joint booth with the EDF ROLIAC project, providing a valuable opportunity to highlight progress and engage with key stakeholders across Europe.
The DISCMAM project was presented at the 3rd European Military Additive Manufacturing Symposium, held from April 8-9 in Bonn, Germany. The event featured the participation of DISCMAM partners Lortek, the Danish Technological Institute (DTI), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and Fieldmade, offering an excellent platform to showcase the project’s research, gain insights, and engage with industry professionals, armed forces, academia and research on the application of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in military settings.
Organized by the German Association for Defence (DWT) and supported by the European Defence Agency (EDA), the symposium attracted around 500 attendees, including professionals from the defence industry, armed forces, academia, and research sectors.
DISCMAM on stage at the Symposium
The third edition of the symposium focused on addressing military requirements and challenges, with the main goal of fostering a shared understanding of AM’s benefits and limitations. The event also aimed to promote sustainable cooperation among stakeholders to realize AM’s potential in military applications. As our partner Daniel Ferreira from DTI highlighted: “At the AM Symposium, the latest developments from the DISCMAM project were showcased, including innovative manual, automatic, and semi-automatic 3D scanning strategies applied to real-world components in collaboration with Ministries of Defence (MoDs)”.
The symposium was structured with multiple simultaneous activities, including keynote speaker interventions, poster presentations, and parallel sessions. DISCMAM was presented in two of these sessions, with its representatives sharing valuable insights into the future of AM in defence.
On April 9, Daniel Ferreira from DTI participated in Session A3, titled “AM meets Military II: Considerations from Research & Industry Perspectives”.
Daniel Ferreira featured a presentation on “Automating 3D scanning and reverse engineering to boost on-site military metal additive manufacturing for spare parts and repair“.
As he stated:
“The session focused on engaging with key stakeholders: Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), researchers, armed forces, and procurement agencies to drive awareness and adoption of these technologies. Building these synergies is essential to ensure the solutions address real needs, while keeping procurement agencies informed about the possibilities, from manufacturing new parts to repairing or creating temporary replacements, for streamlined and effective implementation. This highlights the belief that collaboration across sectors is crucial for turning cutting-edge research into practical solutions that meet the demands of modern applications”.
On the same day, Niccolò Maccarini, PhD researcher at TU/e, participated in Session C3, which focused on “Supply Chains, Cyber Security, Factory Planning, and Cost-effective Cooperation”. The session featured Maccarini’s presentation on “Joint Procurement of Additively Manufactured Spare Parts for the Defence Sector“.
After attending the Symposium, Maccarini emphasized:
“Participating to the AM Symposium was a great opportunity to disseminate the results of our research among professionals in the defence field, while receiving valuable insights from their experience as well as promising possibilities of future collaboration”.
DISCMAM and ROLIAC join forces
The DISCMAM and ROLIAC projects continue to strengthen their synergy, taking advantage of this prominent event to collaborate at a joint booth, featuring the presence of our principal project coordinator, Juan Carlos Pereira and Marta Muñiz, from Lortek, Nils Knofius (Fieldmade) and Rob Basten (Tu/e). This collaboration highlighted the complementary approaches of both projects in advancing additive manufacturing technologies within the defence sector.
Funded under the EDF calls, the two projects initiated their partnership to plan joint dissemination and communication activities and establish effective collaboration. Both initiatives focus is on researching disruptive technologies for defence applications, aiming to enhance operational efficiency and logistical capabilities. In this sense, the symposium served as an excellent opportunity to reinforce these synergies, connect with key stakeholders across Europe, and exchange ideas on innovation and implementation in the defence sector.
