Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and overall numerical fabrication methods have been recognized by stakeholders as the next industrial revolution bringing customers’ needs and suppliers’ offers closer. It cannot be dissociated to the present trends in increased virtualization, cloud approaches and collaborative developments (i.e. sharing of resources). AM is likely to be one good option paving the way to Europe re-industrialization and increased competitiveness. AMITIE will reinforce European capacities in the AM field applied to ceramic-based products. Through its extensive programme of transnational and intersectoral secondments, AMITIE will promote fast technology transfer and enable as well training of AM experts from upstream research down to more technical issues. This will provide Europe with specialists of generic skills having a great potential of knowledge-based careers considering present growing needs for AM industry development. To do that, AMITIE brings together leading academic and industrial European players in the fields of materials science/processes, materials characterizations, AM technologies and associated numerical simulations, applied to the fabrication of functional and/or structural ceramic-based materials for energy/transport, and ICTs applications, as well as biomaterials. Those players will develop a new concept of smart factory for the future based on 3D AM technologies (i.e. powder bed methods, robocasting, inkjet printing, stereolithography, etc.) and their possible hybridization together or with subtractive technologies (e.g. laser machining). It will allow for the production of parts whose dimensions, shapes, functionality and assembly strategies may be tailored to address today’s key technological issues of the fabrication of high added value objects following a fully-combinatorial route. This is expected to lead to a new paradigm for production of multiscale, multimaterial and multifunctional components and systems

Several tens of millions of European citizens are partially edentulous and have insufficient bone for placement of dental implants. Following FP7 REBORNE project on bone regeneration, the MAXIBONE consortium coordinated by INSERM wishes to perform a randomized controlled clinical trial on alveolar ridge augmentation in mandibular and maxillary bone. This late stage clinical trial will aim at comparing the safety and efficacy of autologous bone grafting (gold standard) with culture expanded autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) associated to a synthetic bone substitute covered by a resorbable membrane in 150 patients. The recruitment will be performed in 10 major hospital centres while the production of MSC will be done in the German and French blood transfusion institutes. Medical imaging, direct measurements and histology of core biopsies before dental implants will ensure the evaluation of bone regeneration. Cost-effective monitoring using a secured internet platform (eCRF) will produce a clinical database for evaluation of safety, efficacy and health costs in both arms. The participation of the innovative biomaterial SME Mimetis and the industrial leader in dental implantology Straumann will further contribute to the dissemination and exploitation strategies of future personalized regenerative medicine treatments in Europe.

The tremendous success of lasers in industry resulted in massive demand for photonics-based solutions. At the moment lasers are inseparable part of fields like communications, medicine, science and heavy industry. This is due to outstanding versatility of light, as it can be used as means for both measurement and direct processing. One of the newest developments in the field is advent of ultra-fast femtosecond (fs) lasers. Alongside all the standard laser properties, these lasers add capability to control temporal and thermal characteristics of light-matter interaction as well as eliminate any material related restrictions due ultra-high light intensities achievable. For these reasons fs lasers are predicated to play pivotal role in 4th industrial revolution with ultrafast laser marked projected to grow up to 7.1 billion dollars by 2021. Direct surface treatment is one of the key areas where fs lasers proved highly promising. Specific light-matter interaction regimes enabled by fs pulses allow to create surface patterns in scales ranging from nanoripples to millimetre-sized grooves. Such surface features could be made into either repelling or adhering. As it is direct process applicable for any kind of surface metal patterning is especially interesting, as it could find use if fields like medicine, aerospace, maritime and tool manufacturing, replacing various coatings, lubricants or enabling entirely new properties. The main objective of FemtoSurf is to exploit the newest advances in laser development for creation of industrial-grade 2-3 kW-level fs laser that would be integrated in propose-built optical chain enabling multi-beam processing (up to 100 simultaneous beams) with individually controlled spatial distributions in each laser spot, integrated into a fully automated processing setup for efficient patterning arbitrary shaped metal components with sizes exceeding several meters while retaining micrometre level precision.