From now on, students and employees of the University of Magdeburg who are interested in setting up their own business can use a high-tech production laboratory in Building 12 on the university campus to quickly and cost-effectively produce prototypes for their business ideas. Funded with 800,000 euros from the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE), the so-called MakerLab Additiv+ has everything to make the hearts of those interested in setting up a business beat faster.
The production laboratory is one of a series of so-called ego.incubators, which are designed to support and promote entrepreneurial thinking and action as incubators for business ideas and prototype workshops.
“The Additive+ incubator is aimed at all interested founders who want to develop products or services,” says Lars Berg, who is responsible for the Additive+ incubator at the Chair of Production Engineering with a focus on cutting. The production laboratory offers start-up teams the opportunity to quickly and easily produce the first durable prototypes of their product idea and analyze them in terms of their properties. “For this purpose, the Additive+ production laboratory has a selective laser melting system that enables the production of components from metallic powder based on 3D data sets. A drag and vibratory finishing machine is available for post-processing the finished components and the surface of the finished component can be analyzed using a confocal microscope. Any residual stresses induced by the manufacturing process can be identified using an X-ray diffractometer,” says the engineer. A new feature is an optical micro-coordinate measuring machine. This allows users to independently carry out dimensional, positional and form measurements and derive 3D data sets from the measurement results in order to optimize their designs and test them at an early stage.
In addition to this infrastructure, the incubator offers individual support, says Lars Berg. “Users receive training on device technology as well as support with product development and production. Through cooperation with the university's Transfer and Start-up Center (TUGZ) and through workshops and pitch events, start-up teams are networked and also receive support in the areas of financing and business model development.”
The next opportunity for interested parties to visit the incubator is the study information day on May 24, 2025, when information tours will be offered under the motto “From idea to innovation: insights into production technology”.