On a shopfloor, the difference between a promising build and a costly failure can come down to heat that drifts a few degrees over a long cycle. For DMG MORI, that reality is pushing metal additive manufacturing away from spectacle and towards the disciplines that have long governed machine tools: repeatability, serviceability, and a payback period that survives scrutiny. Patrick Diederich, managing director of DMG MORI Ultrasonic Lasertec, says the company’s bet is not on volume sales but on making laser-based additive behave like the CNC equipment customers already trust.
Diederich positions the group’s additive effort as an extension of its long-standing machine tool business rather than a separate experiment. The unit, established in 2013, began by combining laser deposition welding with five-axis milling. “From the start with a hybrid concept,” he said, the aim was to integrate additive directly into production workflows rather than treat it as a stand-alone technology.
A specialist unit inside a global machine-tool group
Ultrasonic Lasertec sits within DMG MORI as a specialist operation of roughly 200 staff, covering ultrasonic machining for hard and brittle materials alongside laser-based processes for ablation, drilling, cutting, and metal deposition. Additive manufacturing has grown in importance within the group over the past decade, with both powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition machines now built across Europe, Japan, and the US to meet regional demand.
Market adoption has been slower than early projections suggested. Diederich acknowledged that the sector has not reached the volumes anticipated in the late 2010s, although he said additive has secured a stable position in industrial production and R&D. “SLM and DED have their targets, branches, specialties and markets,” he said. “They are completely different. We don’t compete with these technologies.”
Internally, additive has become a design requirement. New DMG MORI machines are expected to incorporate additively produced components where they deliver functional benefits, making additive part of standard product development rather than a showcase technology.
The conversation around maturity has shifted. Early concerns about density, porosity and metallurgy have largely fallen away. “This is not a topic anymore,” Diederich said. Attention has moved to return on investment, service availability, spare parts, automation and unattended operation. These are familiar questions from CNC manufacturing, and he sees that as evidence of progress. “We are now talking about the same issues which we have like CNC machines.”
He estimates metal additive to be well past its formative stage on the CNC timeline. While CNC has developed over roughly half a century, Diederich places additive somewhere between 50 and 80 per cent of that maturity. Shared controls and software architectures have shortened the learning curve. Siemens controls and similar platforms already underpin both technologies, reducing integration risk for established manufacturers.
The remaining barriers are less technical than operational. Investment decisions still require persuasion, particularly where additive is evaluated alongside conventional equipment. DMG MORI has responded by creating an “additive intelligence” group that works with customers to assess part suitability, redesign components, and test business cases before a machine sale. “The uncertainty is more on the financial side,” Diederich said. “The technology itself is established.”
Process control has become central as machines move into production environments. Directed energy deposition systems monitor powder flow, layer height, nozzle distance, and workpiece temperature in real time. Newer powder bed platforms extend melt pool monitoring and thermal management to improve repeatability. “First part right is a huge challenge,” he said, particularly for powder bed systems where a failed build often means scrapping the entire part.
Large-format machines attract attention, but qualification remains uneven. “You see these huge SLM machines at Formnext,” Diederich said. “I don’t know if a lot of parts are already qualified now. I would say no, not yet.” Much of that capacity remains in research and development rather than serial production.
Thermal stability and long-duration process reliability are now major development priorities. DMG MORI’s latest powder bed machine uses a cast base to stabilise temperature over extended runs, with the build chamber and optics isolated from the machine frame. Closed-loop control adjusts laser power continuously during deposition, reducing operator intervention and lowering scrap rates.
Workforce capability remains a constraint. Operating hybrid additive systems demands the skill set of a five-axis CNC machinist combined with an understanding of metallurgy. Simplifying operations through automation and control software
Diederich positions the group’s additive effort as an extension of its long-standing machine tool business rather than a separate experiment. The unit, established in 2013, began by combining laser deposition welding with five-axis milling. “From the start with a hybrid concept,” he said, the aim was to integrate additive directly into production workflows rather than treat it as a stand-alone technology.
A specialist unit inside a global machine-tool group
Ultrasonic Lasertec sits within DMG MORI as a specialist operation of roughly 200 staff, covering ultrasonic machining for hard and brittle materials alongside laser-based processes for ablation, drilling, cutting, and metal deposition. Additive manufacturing has grown in importance within the group over the past decade, with both powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition machines now built across Europe, Japan, and the US to meet regional demand.
Market adoption has been slower than early projections suggested. Diederich acknowledged that the sector has not reached the volumes anticipated in the late 2010s, although he said additive has secured a stable position in industrial production and R&D. “SLM and DED have their targets, branches, specialties and markets,” he said. “They are completely different. We don’t compete with these technologies.”
Internally, additive has become a design requirement. New DMG MORI machines are expected to incorporate additively produced components where they deliver functional benefits, making additive part of standard product development rather than a showcase technology.
The conversation around maturity has shifted. Early concerns about density, porosity and metallurgy have largely fallen away. “This is not a topic anymore,” Diederich said. Attention has moved to return on investment, service availability, spare parts, automation and unattended operation. These are familiar questions from CNC manufacturing, and he sees that as evidence of progress. “We are now talking about the same issues which we have like CNC machines.”
He estimates metal additive to be well past its formative stage on the CNC timeline. While CNC has developed over roughly half a century, Diederich places additive somewhere between 50 and 80 per cent of that maturity. Shared controls and software architectures have shortened the learning curve. Siemens controls and similar platforms already underpin both technologies, reducing integration risk for established manufacturers.
The remaining barriers are less technical than operational. Investment decisions still require persuasion, particularly where additive is evaluated alongside conventional equipment. DMG MORI has responded by creating an “additive intelligence” group that works with customers to assess part suitability, redesign components, and test business cases before a machine sale. “The uncertainty is more on the financial side,” Diederich said. “The technology itself is established.”
Process control has become central as machines move into production environments. Directed energy deposition systems monitor powder flow, layer height, nozzle distance, and workpiece temperature in real time. Newer powder bed platforms extend melt pool monitoring and thermal management to improve repeatability. “First part right is a huge challenge,” he said, particularly for powder bed systems where a failed build often means scrapping the entire part.
Large-format machines attract attention, but qualification remains uneven. “You see these huge SLM machines at Formnext,” Diederich said. “I don’t know if a lot of parts are already qualified now. I would say no, not yet.” Much of that capacity remains in research and development rather than serial production.
Thermal stability and long-duration process reliability are now major development priorities. DMG MORI’s latest powder bed machine uses a cast base to stabilise temperature over extended runs, with the build chamber and optics isolated from the machine frame. Closed-loop control adjusts laser power continuously during deposition, reducing operator intervention and lowering scrap rates.
Workforce capability remains a constraint. Operating hybrid additive systems demands the skill set of a five-axis CNC machinist combined with an understanding of metallurgy. Simplifying operations through automation and control software