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The ExOne Company, a global provider of 3D printing machines and printed products to industrial customers, announced that the company has begun transitioning into its newly completed European headquarters facility in Gershofen, Germany, located in the district of Augsburg.

Clare Goldsberry

September 15, 2014

3 Min Read
ExOne completes new European headquarters in Germany; opens production service center in Italy

The facility comprises approximately 150,700 square feet of production, warehouse, service and R&D space in addition to approximately 27,600 sq-ft for offices. ExOne is consolidating its five existing leased facilities in Augsburg, which currently occupy an aggregate of approximately 77,500 sq-ft, into its new facility. The move is intended to provide expansion capacity to support the company's global growth strategy.

"We are beginning to transition our activities, which include production, warehousing, a production service center, an R&D lab, as well as our European headquarters into our new location, and we expect to have completed our move through November," said Rainer Hoechsmann, chief development officer and general manager of ExOne GmbH. "We are proud to dedicate our state-of-the-art facility as the 'S. Kent Rockwell' 3D Printing Innovation Center' in honor of the leadership and significant financial support that Kent Rockwell has made in ExOne and its innovations in 3D binder jetting technology." Rockwell has been the leading executive of ExOne since his affiliated company purchased it in 2007, and guided the company through its initial public offering in February 2013.

In June, ExOne announced the planned August 1, 2014 opening of a new combined Production Service Center (PSC) and Machine Sales Center in the Lombardy region of Italy. Said Omar, most recently ExOne's European sales director, will be ExOne Italy's managing director.

The location, consisting of an approximately 3,300 square-foot leased facility, was selected due to its close proximity to foundries and operations supporting the aviation, automotive and other industries around Milan, Torino and Venetia. ExOne Italy's PSC will initially operate with one each of the company's S-Max and S-Print 3D printing machines. The company's largest capacity machine, the S-Max, prints sand molds and cores in a build box of 1.8 meters x 1 meter x 0.7 meters with a job box production time of about 24 hours. The mid-sized S-Print machine prints objects using silica sand or ceramic.

ExOne also provides 3D metal printing, and in May of this year the company's Material Applications Laboratory (ExMAL), qualified Inconel alloy 625, a nickel-based alloy. This material represented ExOne's first single metal alloy for 3D printing industrial applications at more than 99% density, utilizing its binder jetting technology.

Inconel alloy 625 is commonly used for components in the aerospace, chemical and energy markets, with applications including gas turbine blades, filtration and separation, heat exchanger and molding processes. The metal is desirable due to its oxidation and corrosion-resistant qualities, able to retain its strength even when subjected to extreme environments such as high pressure of wide temperature ranges. Inconel alloy 625 has been qualified for use on ExOne's M-Flex and X1-Lab 3D printing machines. The company began commercializing Inconel alloy 625 in June.

Rick Lucas, ExOne's chief technology officer, commented, "Our qualification of the more than 99% dense Inconel ally 625 further validates ExOne's binder jetting technology as a cost-effective 3D printing industrial solution. Our machines provide higher volumetric output per unit of time compared with other metal 3D printing technologies, and greater flexibility for simultaneously printing multiple parts. We believe that the ability to directly print highly dense metal components increases our competitive edge with both subtractive manufacturers and other metal 3D printing technologies."

In addition to a PSC in Japan and the newest one in Italy, ExOne has five PSC facilities in the United States (Huntington, PA; Auburn, WA; Troy, MI; Houston, TX; and Las Vegas, NV) Germany, Japan and Italy. According to company information, ExOne plans to have a total of 15 PSC's globally by the end of 2015. ExOne builds 3D printing machines at its facilities in the U.S. and Germany, and also supplies the associated materials, including consumables and replacement parts, and other services, including training and technical support necessary for purchasers of its machines to print products.

About the Author(s)

Clare Goldsberry

Until she retired in September 2021, Clare Goldsberry reported on the plastics industry for more than 30 years. In addition to the 10,000+ articles she has written, by her own estimation, she is the author of several books, including The Business of Injection Molding: How to succeed as a custom molder and Purchasing Injection Molds: A buyers guide. Goldsberry is a member of the Plastics Pioneers Association. She reflected on her long career in "Time to Say Good-Bye."

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