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Qingdao takes the lead in 3D printing

Updated: 2014-06-24

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China's Qingdao city is taking the lead in the emerging 3D printing industry as it will be home to the China 3D Printing Innovation Center and Business Park, according to the city's investment promotion office.

The World 3D Printing Technology Industry Alliance, the China 3D Printing Technology Industry Alliance and the Asian Manufacturing Association will invest a total of 40 million yuan ($6.42 million) to set up the 3D printing business park in the Qingdao National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, including an exhibition and experience center, a processing service center and a technological research and development center.

The exhibition and experience center will display its global member enterprises' 3D printers and the world's 3D technologies, as well as up-to-date developments in the 3D printing industry.

The processing service center will offer a national 3D printing service platform and networks, enabling industrial users to share the latest 3D printing technological achievements without having to add extra fixed-asset investments.

The technological R&D center will be responsible for strategic research on the 3D printing industry's technological and industrial development, resources coordination among colleges and universities, research institutes and enterprises at home and abroad, and collaborated 3D printing technological innovations. It will also cultivate 3D printing professionals in the fields of biology, architecture, health and education, and promote the application and industrialization of technological findings.

The Qingdao High-tech Zone has signed strategic cooperation agreements with more than ten 3D printing organizations and enterprises and hired five of the world's top experts in the industry as advisers, including Graham Tromans, president of the UK-based G. P. Tromans Associates, an independent additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping and 3D printing consultancy, and Dr. Jack Keverian, professor emeritus of Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA.