VerAdMa | Glassware made by additive manufacturing

Region:

Europe

Financed by

Expanding glass design possibilities with additive manufacturing

Producing complex glass shapes remains a major challenge for the industry. While additive manufacturing (AM) has transformed the design and production of parts across many materials, its application to glass is still limited. The VerAdMa project aims to unlock the full potential of additive manufacturing for glass by bringing together key players from the Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen (FWVL) region. Together, they are exploring and developing advanced manufacturing routes for decorative and technical glass.

Target group

The project is primarily relevant for:

The glass industry (artistic, technical, packaging)
Optics, chemistry, and microfluidics
Luxury and design sectors
Archaeology and cultural heritage

Context

The Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen (FWVL) zone is historically rooted in glassmaking, with a dense network of manufacturers and processors shaping the local economy for over a century. However, to remain competitive, the sector must adopt modern manufacturing methods, including additive manufacturing.
While additive manufacturing has made strides in metals, ceramics and polymers, its application to glass remains limited. Meanwhile, universities and research centres in the region are actively exploring additive manufacturing technologies. VerAdMa builds on this ecosystem to pioneer additive manufacturing routes for glass in both artistic and technical applications.

Objectives & results

The goal of VerAdMa is to bring together research centres and manufacturers across the FWVL Interreg zone to develop innovative additive manufacturing techniques tailored to glass.
By doing so, the project aims to enable the production of:

Decorative glass pieces, particularly for luxury packaging and design
Technical glass components for optics, chemistry and pharmaceutical applications

Approach

In VerAdMa, additive manufacturing will be used both to produce the moulds and to shape the glass parts themselves. The project explores two complementary additive manufacturing approaches for glass: melting and sintering.
The melting pathway includes two techniques:

Casting molten glass into 3D-printed refractory moulds using Binder Jetting
Fusing glass microbeads layer by layer using Powder Bed Fusion

The sintering pathway involves two strategies:

Injection of glass suspension precursors into 3D-printed moulds
Direct shaping of glass suspensions through stereolithography

Each technique leverages the consortium’s strong expertise in glass science, formulation, and process engineering. The selected methods are based on technologies with a maturity level of TRL 3–5 and are enabled by the close collaboration between the project’s core and associated partners, including industrial and cultural stakeholders, who will help maximise the project’s impact through targeted dissemination in key sectors.