BRUSSELS—Solvay, L’Oréal, and Ultimaker are sponsoring the third edition of its international Additive Manufacturing Cup competition, which begins September 1 and runs through mid-November.

The contest gives students, engineers and manufacturers from around the world the chance to demonstrate their aptitude for 3D printing and create an innovative design for a 3D-printed real application. The partnership aims to promote the importance of optimizing materials, hardware and processes when designing a successful 3D printing project.

"We are pleased to collaborate with L’Oréal, which offers a tangible and challenging industrial application, and Ultimaker to 3D print our candidates’ designs for assessment," explains Brian Alexander, AM global product and application manager at Solvay. "We continue to build key partnerships in the value chain to offer our customers high-performance 3D printable polymers and meet the rapid developments of a once niche-technology.”

“Ultimaker supports the Solvay AM Cup by offering our expertise and 3D printing facilities to help young engineers turn their ideas into physical applications,” says Miguel Calvo, CTO at Ultimaker. “It is a fantastic initiative that enables young professionals and engineers to leverage the full Ultimaker ecosystem to design an application for L’Oréal that increases their productivity, while creating flexibility in their production line. Solvay's high-performance, AM-ready materials meet the needs of our customers' most challenging applications.”

The material to be used by contestants must be specifically chosen from Solvay’s portfolio of filaments and powders for 3D printing. These comprise Solef polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), KetaSpire polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and Radel polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) filaments, which include medical and carbon-fiber-filled grades.

The Cup winner will be announced in January 2022 and receive a 5,000 EUR prize from Solvay to be reinvested in academic, societal or entrepreneurial activities.