CEO of Lithoz wins ‘Big Five Award of Additive Manufacturing 2021’ as world leader in ceramic 3D printing

Lithoz GmbH, world and industry leaders in the 3D printing of high performance ceramics, has been awarded as a top player in the ceramic 3D printing world. The ‘Big Five’ award celebrates long-term and defining contributions to the additive manufacturing industry, highlighting the winner’s broad range of achievements over many years.

Lithoz has created a range of 3D printers for various applications, including medical, industrial and dental, and has also developed ceramic printing materials to suit different needs. Die Institut für werkzeuglose Fertigung awards this prize each year in association with the FH Aachen in Germany.

Professor Andreas Gebhardt of IwF GmbH, who is an acclaimed author, pioneer and renowned expert in the 3D printing world, described the award as being a recognition of both Dr. Homa’s and Lithoz’s achievements in the ‘journey of an idea from the laboratory to the top of the world market’. He describes Dr. Homa as being ‘the engine that drives the Lithoz project forward’, stating that he ‘recognizes the needs of the market and, above all, of his customers’ and noting the impressive achievement of Lithoz’s foundation of bases not only in Austria and America, but also in China, with almost 100 employees worldwide. Dr. Homa, who is an industrial engineer with a PhD in Materials Science, has since enabled ‘the successful transformation of an invention into a product, in the form of a family of machines and materials.’

Lithoz, who is this year celebrating its 10 year anniversary of the company’s founding, was started by co-founders Dr. Homa and Dr. Johannes Benedikt as a spin-off from Vienna Technical University. As the 2021 winner of this award, Dr. Homa is counted among other successful and impactful recipients such as Dipl.-Ing. Frank Palm of Airbus Central Research & Technology, who was awarded the prize in 2019 to celebrate his innovation of a new process in metal additive manufacturing. Dr.-Ing. Wilhelm Meiners, of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, was also awarded in 2018 for his work in developing new materials in the field of metal additive manufacturing.