SKZ consolidates injection molding and additive manufacturing under new leadership

The Plastics Center SKZ in Würzburg is restructuring its “Injection Molding and Additive Manufacturing” division: Since July 2025, chemist Dr. Alexander Vyhnal has been in charge. The manager brings more than two decades of experience from research and development in the consumer goods industry and succeeds Georg Schwalme, who is retiring. For the highly networked polymer sector, consolidating both technologies into a single unit is strategically relevant, as near-series injection-molding processes are increasingly intertwined with additive manufacturing routes—from pilot production and tool inserts to function-integrated small series.

“With the new leadership, SKZ is continuing its strategy of advancing industry-relevant training as well as research and development in plastics technologies through experienced professionals,” explains Dr. Benjamin Baudrit, deputy managing director for research and education at SKZ. “Alexander Vyhnal brings extensive practical and scientific expertise that will be crucial for advancing applications in injection molding and expanding additive manufacturing technologies,” Baudrit adds.

For users, robust process chains are of particular interest—those that systematically cover material behavior, process windows, and part quality—for example through material qualification, design-for-AM, hybrid process steps with downstream injection molding, and accompanying quality assurance.

“I am very pleased to take over the leadership of the Injection Molding and Additive Manufacturing division at SKZ. Together with my team of over 20 research staff and trainers, I aim to develop practice-oriented solutions for industry and deliberately drive technology transfer from research to application. The combination of digital training offerings and hands-on courses on state-of-the-art equipment will play a central role,” says Vyhnal, the new division head at SKZ.

With this appointment, SKZ is addressing the growing need for qualified training and application-oriented research in polymer 3D printing. For companies—especially SMEs—the closer coupling of injection molding and additive manufacturing could ease the introduction of robust AM applications in production and service.