Wintermans takes the helm himself at Eindhoven's 3D metal-printing company

Shareholder Jonas Wintermans is taking the lead himself at Additive Industries. The Eindhoven-based manufacturer of 3D metal printers also announces on Friday the development of a new model for much larger volumes.

Wintermans will become the successor as top executive of Daan Kersten, who suddenly left the company in June. Together the pair were at the basis of the development in 2012 of the revolutionary fully automatic metal printer. Kersten took on the role of top executive, with Wintermans fading into the background.

Size of components quintupled

He is now taking the helm himself in a crucial phase for the company. Competitors are now active and Addiditive Industries must see to maintaining its leading position. An important step it announced yesterday was the development of a new model metal printing system. That would be able to quintuple the maximum size of the parts to be printed. Instead of 42x42x40 centimeters it could be scaled up to 60x60x100 centimeters. The company expects to be able to present its new flagship at the end of 2021.

,,The larger volume opens doors for customers to more applications and higher productivity", states Wintermans in a written statement. Such a printer for heavier jobs places high demands. According to the company, the machine will have to be 'maximally robust' in order to be able to do its work for several consecutive days.

For airplanes and Formula 1
Among Additive Industries' customers are, among others, aircraft manufacturer Airbus and automotive groups BMW and Volkswagen. An unnamed American space company and Formula 1 team Alfa Romeo Racing are also clients.

The Wintermans family has been a shareholder since the company was founded. After the departure of CEO Kersten, the family, under the banner of investment company Highlands Beheer, took over his shareholding. Apart from a small stake that is in the hands of staff the family has since been the sole owner. Highlands Beheer is investing this year, according to its own statement, 28 million euros in Additive Industries.

Highlands Beheer owns, in addition to Additive Industries, two other technology companies, NTS (systems for high‑tech machine construction) and ATD Machinery (machines for the cigar industry). The Wintermans family was also the owner of cigar manufacturer Agio until 2019.

source.