Talking with EOS founder Dr. Hans Langer

The Additive Manufacturing Users Group presents its Innovators Award to individuals who cultivate ideas that significantly advance AM. Previous recipients include inventors Chuck Hull, (stereolithography), Scott Crump (fused deposition modeling), and Carl Deckard (selective laser sintering).

The 2020 winner is Hans Langer, who founded EOS GmbH in 1989. He currently serves as CEO and chairman of EOS Group, Krailling, Germany. During its 30-year existence, EOS, which manufactures metal and polymer printers, has made significant contributions to the advancement of AM.

Today, EOS employs 1,250 people in 15 countries and offers support services in 67 countries.

The Additive Report: You were educated as a physicist. How has that affected the choices you’ve made as the head of EOS?

Dr. Hans Langer: In physics, we learned the approach of logical thinking and how to put everything into the broader context of nature. I realized that using these concepts will help me in my business career, particularly as a basis for developing the company’s vision for the future.

At the same time, the concepts of nature more and more translate into bionic applications these days, which also guides us in our innovation process.

To give you an example, look at the bone of a bird. This is a very complex and hollow structure which, at the same time, is very strong yet lightweight. This is something a lot of applications in business are demanding too. Conventional manufacturing techniques might not always enable this. Industrial 3D printing does, as parts can be built up layer by layer with a high degree of freedom of design.

AR: Throughout its history, EOS has steadily introduced new technologies or innovations that improve existing products. In the past year, for example, the company became the first manufacturer to develop a solution for powder-based industrial 3D printing using a CO2 laser, rolled out a modular system for metal 3D printing, and launched programs for additively manufacturing foam and other materials. Which of the company’s advancements do you think were most significant?

Langer: The most significant developments that come to mind happened during the last 10 years. They are not necessarily tied to a specific system or technology, but to defined industries: energy, aerospace, and medical. Let’s look at each one.

Energy. EOS’s technology for gas turbine applications is substantial. Take Siemens in Finspång, Sweden, as an example. They started to improve their maintenance program for gas turbines based on the EOS technology some years ago. This resulted in a faster repair process, an accelerated innovation process, and positive cost effects. Today, Siemens can create geometries that provide substantially higher efficiency for their gas turbines, resulting in additional cost reductions.

Aerospace. When the aerospace sector started to adopt AM, the biggest driver was the functional integration it enabled, resulting in substantially reduced production and assembly costs. The Ariane Group, for example, reduced the number of components of an injection head in rocket engines from 248 to one.

Medical. Here, the impact of AM for mankind is most apparent. Every person is unique. As such, when it comes to dentistry, orthopedics, and implantology, for example, optimal patient care is required. Consequently, medical products that provide a perfect fit are needed. There is a high demand for one-off components and components produced in small production runs whose materials and manufacturing standards have to fulfill extremely stringent quality requirements. This also applies to specialized surgical instruments and medical devices—all of which need to be made available quickly and cost-effectively.

AR: During a recent interview, you described 3D printing as a “fully digital technology, which makes it fully scalable.” What did you mean by that? And will all manufacturing processes need to become digital if they are to continue to be used?

Langer: EOS offers complete end-to-end solutions for demanding customer requirements. As such, innovations span from digital design to digital materials to digital processes. This enables digital manufacturing and, if needed, decentralized manufacturing, i.e., manufacturing performed in “factories around the corner.” This makes manufacturing easily scalable, according to customer demand.

The answer to your second question is yes. Digitalization is dominating all parts of business already today and will continue to do so in the future. It has a huge impact on production too—and AM, as a digital process, is one of the key drivers.

AR: Members of the additive manufacturing community seem eager to partner with other additive-related companies. EOS has partnered with GKN, GF Manufacturing, 3YourMind, and Arkema, to name a few. Why are companies in this industry so interested in collaborating?

Langer: Our strong network of partners allows us to shape the industry, revolutionize the design of applications, and develop new markets. This type of collaborative approach brings together core competencies from different sources, accelerating the innovation process. We cannot develop everything in-house, so this approach has proven to be successful and will help us to jointly develop the market much quicker.

AR: Will additive manufacturing ever replace some conventional processes, like casting and forging?

Langer: No, not necessarily. We will rather see a general shift of production processes toward digital. In this context, the definition of high volume will change as well. Large-scale production of identical parts as we know it today will, over time, be more and more replaced by mass customization.

AR: There’s a debate in industry about how “green” 3D printing is. Some say it is much less polluting than conventional manufacturing processes, while others contend it is not. What do you think?

Langer: Additive manufacturing adapts the concepts of nature in many ways. Design for AM means designing like nature. AM grows a part by adding material instead of removing material, like with conventional manufacturing. As such, AM enables substantial material savings as well as freedom of design.

One goal many customers have is to create strong yet lightweight structures, enabling substantial weight and cost reductions. In aerospace, for example, material and weight savings lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Intelligent AM lightens structures by combining high strength with a weight reduction of 40% to 60%, and material savings translate into more flexibility in design and engineering. The result is airplanes consume significantly less fuel—a key cost driver—while reducing pollutive emissions.

AR: You’ve been in the additive manufacturing industry almost since its inception. What has been the single biggest thing—technological development or event—to advance the industry?

Langer: I see a huge step forward for our technology’s development by the fact we found a way to enable digital design—i.e., creating parts like nature, yet based on algorithms instead of a designer doing the entire job. In the future, this will give AM market development an extra push.