EOS plans to unveil a new polymer powder bed fusion platform at Formnext 2026, with full details scheduled for November 17. Ahead of that launch, one of its customers is already reporting production results. Materialise, the additive manufacturing service provider, said it evaluated the machine under real production conditions and measured 44% higher productivity than with the previous EOS platform, while build time per part dropped from 19:53 to 13:51 minutes.
Materialise is one of several EOS customers that have trialled the technology before its commercial unveiling. EOS has so far confirmed only part of the architecture: the platform uses three lasers with intelligent utilization and dynamic load balancing, which the company says maximizes output per build by distributing the exposure workload evenly. The increased laser capacity is credited with the productivity gain.
Aerospace part under evaluation
The evaluation centered on a cable twist wheel produced for GKN Aerospace. Materialise said it wanted to establish more than whether the machine could print the part, which it could. The service provider also assessed reliability, the impact of the platform's new features, productivity and efficiency, usability and control, and how easy the parts were to post-process.
Three lasers, balanced exposure
Giovanni Vleminckx, process engineering manager at Materialise, said the three lasers make a visible difference in performance and that their intelligent utilization helps the company reach considerably higher throughput while holding the part quality its customers expect.
Process control: validated or open
The system adds extended process controls. Users can work with validated parameter sets or open them up for greater control and alignment with specific applications and KPIs. Vleminckx said what stood out was not one isolated feature but the overall performance of the system, which he described as combining the productivity needed with the process stability and control required to bring demanding applications into production.
Downstream handling gains
Materialise also reported benefits after the build. An advanced roller recoater creates softer powder cakes, which makes it easier to depowder parts and reduces handling effort. Vleminckx called the soft powder cake a very tangible improvement for operators, adding that parts are easier to unpack and depowder, making the overall workflow noticeably more efficient.
For a manufacturing service with high-throughput requirements that has to adapt to different production applications, the combination matters: three-laser capacity, a new recoating system and process controls that can be opened up or locked down. Materialise has not published a broader comparison across parts, and EOS has not yet disclosed the platform's full specifications or commercial availability; those details are expected at the November 17 launch.
EOS will present the platform at Formnext 2026 from November 17 at its booth in hall 12, booth D71.