Greg Morris of GE Aviation has been involved in the development of the LEAP engine fuel nozzle that will be produced through additive manufacturing in a GE plant in Auburn, Alabama. He will devote time to audience questions about additive manufacturing at the Tuesday workshop.

Additive manufacturing has added its name to one of the pavilions at IMTS. The North Hall now includes the Fabricating/Laser/Additive Pavilion. The expanded number of additive manufacturing exhibitors that has led to this development is just one sign of the growing interest in 3D-printing-style technologies as a part-making option. Another response to that growing interest is a new event at the show: The Additive Manufacturing Workshop to be held on Tuesday afternoon.

Organized by Gardner Business Media and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, this half-day event will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 9, starting at 12 p.m. in the West Hall.

“This will be very different from other 3D printing conferences,” says Allison Kline Miller, Gardner Business Media director of events. “Our focus with this workshop is industrial applications—making functional components and end-use parts.” Attention to 3D printing often includes artistic applications, non-functional prototypes and “maker” or hobbyist interests. The Additive Manufacturing Workshop, by contrast, “addresses the interests of IMTS attendees with speakers who are involved with applying additive manufacturing in production,” Miller says.

Speakers include:

● Craig Blue of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, speaking on the latest developments in additive at an Oak Ridge facility aimed at helping U.S. businesses succeed with this technology.

● Jon Baklund of Baklund R&D, speaking on additive manufacturing in the job shop.

● Lou Young of Linear Mold, speaking on additive manufacturing for mold making.

● Michael Hayes of Boeing, speaking on polymeric additive manufacturing in aerospace.

● Greg Morris, Additive Technologies Leader with GE, speaking on the promise and practicality of additive manufacturing.

The presentations are preceded by a lunch at 12 p.m. that features panel discussion sponsored by the Additive Working Group of AMT—the Association for Manufacturing Technology.

At the end of the workshop, after presentations conclude at 5 p.m., attendees are invited to a networking event with workshop speakers in the Advanced Manufacturing Center, Booth W-10. (Speakers for the TRAM aerospace manufacturing conference to be held on Wednesday and Thursday will be at this reception as well.)