Dipl.-Ing. Patrick Springer I studied Mechanical Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) with focus on product development and design. I then became a development engineer in the field of process and system development of additive manufacturing processes (Freeformer) at ARBURG GmbH & Co KG. I was a scientific assistant at Fraunhofer IPA in the field of additive manufacturing and since 2017 I am a group leader of „Additive Manufacturing Processes for Thermoplastics“. My working field consists of development of additive manufacturing processes and equipment technology with the focus on thermoplastic and thermoset materials, as well as development of hybrid overall process chains on the basis of additive manufacturing processes for function integration with the aim of intelligent use of the process-specific advantages of conventional and additive manufacturing.