• 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.

• Euler brings innovation to the project by leveraging AI-powered predictive analytics on their platform, enabling real-time detection during the production of additive manufacturing components.

Euler is developing a real-time process monitoring solution that addresses one of metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) most significant challenges of the DISCMAM Project: ensuring the reliability and quality of additively manufactured components in critical applications such as within the defence sector. Their real-time process monitoring platform is designed to predict and detect defects during the build process, enabling proactive intervention to reduce waste, improve efficiency, quality, and enhance scalability. 

Why process monitoring matters

Additive manufacturing holds immense potential for industries such as defence, aerospace, automotive, and medical devices. However, challenges like high failure rates, inconsistent quality, and the complexity of scaling operations have slowed its broader adoption. Operating AM systems requires highly specialized expertise, making it challenging to deploy in environments with limited access to skilled personnel.

Euler’s platform offers a patent-pending predictive solution that bridges this gap, allowing operators to detect and address issues as they occur, and even to predict them in advance based on early indicators. It also allows for remote monitoring, which is essential for applications where access to skilled expertise to oversee the process is limited.

Euler brings AI-driven monitoring to the DISCMAM project

By providing cutting-edge real-time process monitoring capabilities for remote Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) systems, Euler is an important player in the project. Their platform utilizes AI-driven predictive analytics to detect and mitigate potential defects during the build process, ensuring high-quality and reliable AM components. This innovative approach supports the project’s objective to enhance the use of additive manufacturing in demanding environments.

With both cloud-based and on-premise solutions, the entity addresses critical challenges such as operational efficiency and quality assurance, making their platform adaptable to the stringent requirements of the defence industry.

The team behind Euler consists of highly skilled experts within computer vision, artificial intelligence, statistical analysis and software development. Together, their expertise ensures that Euler’s platform supports DISCMAM’s mission to advance additive manufacturing for defence.

A vision for the future of AM

Euler is committed to advancing additive manufacturing by delivering reliable, scalable, and user-friendly monitoring solutions, facilitating its widespread adoption across both critical and non-critical industrial applications. During the project, the company’s commitment will help by ensuring high-quality AM procedures without the need of skilled personnel.