AIM3D – The next generation of 3D printing
With the aim of drastically reducing the cost of additive manufacturing, Dr.-Ing. Vincent Morrison and Clemens Lieberwirth founded AIM3D in 2017 as a spin-off from the University of Rostock.
The founders had previously worked with a variety of different additive manufacturing processes at the university, covering plastics, as well as metals and ceramics. During this time, they experienced how the industrial application of additive manufacturing processes often failed due to high material costs and, in particular when it came to the production of metal parts, also due high machine costs.
For this reason, AIM3D was founded not just with the aim of simply building another 3D printer, but to overcome the limitations with respect to materials and to revolutionize the additive manufacturing market from a cost point of view.
The result is a multi-material printer which is much more cost-efficient than any currently available metal printer and at the same time offers customers an unprecedented choice of materials.
Our top priority is to design customer- and problem-oriented products. We are therefore always happy to hear from you. If your desired material is not mentioned on our website, we would like to help you find a solution – just reach out to us!
Our Vision
Our vision is a system that can become the 21st century’s machine tool and thus the driving force of additive manufacturing. Just like any common lathe or milling centre, our machine should not need its own ecosystem. Instead, it should be able to process standard materials and be combined with common tools, thus massively reducing the costs of additive manufacturing.
We have developed a process that allows our AIM3D printers to process both metals as well as plastics while at the same time being considerably cheaper than comparable metal printers.
What makes us unique
The core of our printers is the patented AIM3D CEM E-1 extruder, which can process nearly any type of injection moulding pellets up to a diameter/length of 3 mm and is able to provide a constant supply of material.
The extruder is also extremely wear-resistant due to the high-performance materials that it is made up of. Because of this, there are almost no limitations regarding the desired choice of material, be it stainless steel, hard metals, non-ferrous metals, or plastics such as ABS or PLA.
For you as a customer, this has several advantages: You no longer have to buy expensive plastic filament or metal powder but can now use cost-efficient pellets. This means that you can finally use the same material for your prototypes as you would use for your final products!
This also means that you do not need to adapt your production line.
Simply use your desired material with our printer!
The company’s milestones so far
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May 2014
First successful experiments with the CEM process at the University of Rostock.
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October 2014
Construction of the first prototype
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December 2014
Registration of the patent regarding the CEM process
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October 2015
Analyses of density and strength show that the results are comparable to metal injection moulding
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January 2017
AIM3D GmbH is founded
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April 2017
Construction of the pilot production system ExAM 255
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February 2018
Moved into larger premises (Industriestraße 12, 18069 Rostock)
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November 2018
Successful investment round with the Brose Group and the High-Tech Gründerfonds
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January 2019
Start of the series production of the ExAM 255
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October 2021
Successful funding round with the HZG Group
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2022
Beta phase for the ExAM 510
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2022
Several patents will be granted in 2022