Two AFM Cluster awards at ADDIT3D 2024: what exactly do they recognize?

At the ADDIT3D 2024 trade fair, held from June 3 to 7 at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre as part of BIEMH, we received two awards from the AFM Cluster: the award for innovation in additive manufacturing and 3D printing, for ALBA 300, and the award for the most innovative startup. These are two different things, and it's worth explaining why.

The first one rewards a machine that already works

The award for innovation in additive manufacturing recognizes the ALBA 300, not a prototype or a roadmap. It is an LPBF machine with all of its technology developed here—optics, control, electronics, and slicing software—that has been installed and producing for customers for years.

That distinction matters because in additive manufacturing it's easy to reward promise. What was valued here was technological progress and competitiveness: a machine that competes on price and performance with equipment from much larger manufacturers.

The second one rewards having industrialized

The award for the most innovative startup recognizes something less glamorous but more challenging: the transition from development to industrialization. Certification, documentation, establishing a supply chain, and maintaining after-sales service are all part of the process. This is the stage where most startups in this sector get stuck, and where there are no shortcuts.

What we took to the fair that year

Product	What it is	New
ALBA 500	500W LPBF Machine	250×250 mm area and 300 mm height, double filtering capacity
Samylabs Garbi	First in-house screening machine	Vibration plus ultrasound, inertable interior, suitable for ATEX environments

The Garbi was the year's big launch: a screening machine designed from the ground up for reactive powders—titanium, aluminium—in facilities with ATEX requirements. It's the aspect of additive manufacturing that no one mentions in the brochures, yet it dictates the entire installation.

What awards don't change

An award doesn't reduce the time it takes to build a part or lower its cost. What it does do is shorten the conversation with those who don't yet know us: it's quicker to explain where we come from when the industry has already said it for us.

The rest—whether the technology fits your part, how much it would cost to manufacture it, how long it would take to get it—is answered with numbers, not awards.

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The award-winning machine, in ALBA 500. The underlying technology and why it's ours, in LPBF technology entirely our own. And the rest of the family, in machines.