CECIMO OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES AM-EUROPE TO STRENGTHEN EUROPE’S ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING ECOSYSTEM

CECIMO, the European Association of Manufacturing Technologies, announces the official launch of AM-Europe, as a dedicated European platform for additive manufacturing (AM) sector, marking a new phase in CECIMO’s long-standing work to support the development, recognition, and competitiveness of additive manufacturing in Europe.

CECIMO has been engaged in additive manufacturing for decades, working with industry, policymakers, and key stakeholders to promote AM as a strategic technology for Europe’s industrial base. Building on this experience, AM-Europe represents the strategic evolution of CECIMO’s AM activities into a broader, more visible and more inclusive European initiative.

AM-Europe will continue to advance the vision set out in the Manifesto for a Competitive European Additive Manufacturing Sector: positioning Europe as a global powerhouse for additive manufacturing and fostering an ecosystem capable of developing and deploying advanced technologies across industrial sectors. The platform will contribute to Europe’s green and digital transition, while strengthening industrial resilience, technological capabilities, and high-value manufacturing.

With its formal establishment as a European platform, AM-Europe is now opening participation to a wider range of stakeholders across the additive manufacturing ecosystem. National associations, research organisations, competence centres are invited to join the initiative and contribute to a stronger and more coordinated European AM community.

AM-Europe has been established by a group of founding members representing key segments of the European additive manufacturing ecosystem, including UCIMU, AITA3D, ADDIMAT, FMTI, SWISSMEM and AMUK. Their commitment reflects a shared ambition to strengthen Europe's leadership in additive manufacturing and to support the development of a competitive, innovative and resilient AM ecosystem across the continent.

Operating within CECIMO’s governance framework while benefiting from a dedicated European identity, AM-Europe will serve as a common platform for coordination, representation, and strategic dialogue. It will support closer cooperation across the sector, help align priorities, and ensure that the voice of the European AM ecosystem is clearly reflected in EU policy discussions.

This comes at a time when additive manufacturing is gaining growing recognition among European policymakers as a key enabling technology for industrial competitiveness, flexible production, and advanced manufacturing capabilities. Its relevance is particularly strong in strategic sectors such as defence, aerospace, energy, healthcare, and other high-value industrial applications.

As part of its future activities, AM-Europe will focus on policy advocacy, industrial collaboration, innovation, standardisation, market intelligence, skills development, and closer engagement with European institutions and stakeholders. Through this work, the platform will promote the framework conditions needed for AM technologies to scale and deliver their full industrial potential in Europe.

Commenting on the formal establishment of the platform, Virgilio García, Chairman of AM-Europe, said:

“From an industrial perspective, additive manufacturing has become a strategic technology for Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and capacity to innovate. Through AM-Europe, we want to create a stronger and more coordinated European platform that brings together the AM ecosystem, supports closer dialogue with policymakers, and helps ensure that companies have the right framework conditions to develop, invest and scale. Europe has the expertise and industrial base to lead in additive manufacturing, let’s work together within AM-Europe to make this happen”.

AM-Europe is now open to new members wishing to contribute to the development of a stronger, more coordinated, and globally competitive European additive manufacturing ecosystem.