Additive Manufacturing Case Study: H. Gautzsch In-House AM Lab

H. Gautzsch Firmengruppe is a German distribution giant with two arms: industrial electrical component distribution and the Siena Garden home and garden range. Over 1,000 employees serve both businesses, and the leadership team can see the writing on the wall. Additive manufacturing is changing where products are made, by whom, and in what quantities. Rather than wait for the disruption to hit, Gautzsch built an in-house additive manufacturing case study of its own, opening an AM lab to investigate how the technology reshapes distribution itself.

The challenge: distribution's additive manufacturing disruption

International manufacturing and supply chains face an uncertain future. Additive manufacturing has removed two long-standing constraints: minimum batch sizes and factory footprint. Products no longer need to be ordered in runs of a thousand parts, and a production line can shrink to the size of a kitchen. This changes the calculus for every business in the supply chain.

For distributors, the change is direct. AM lets manufacturers return production to local suppliers, or print parts in-house, skipping international shipping and warehoused stock entirely. Distributors are the link in the chain most exposed to this shift. Companies moving early have a chance to redesign their role around AM rather than be displaced by it.

Why H. Gautzsch launched an in-house AM lab

Rather than commission an external study, the Gautzsch board chose to learn AM by running it. Executive Board member Peter Benthues led the launch of an internal AM lab tasked with exploring the latest trends. The brief was twofold: understand which products in the existing Gautzsch catalogue could realistically move to AM, and map the feasibility of local versus international supply for each one.

A Sinterit SLS printer joined the lab to broaden the investigation into advanced polymer materials. SLS opened up part geometries and functional applications the lab's other tooling could not cover.

"The LISA is one of the few economically feasible solutions in the first stages of any AM Strategy. At lower volumes, it is a perfect solution." Peter Benthues, Executive Board member at H. Gautzsch

Practical fit mattered as much as the technical fit. The Sinterit Lisa does not require extra ventilation, and it takes less floor space than a typical office scanner or printer. For a board-level innovation project, this lowers the activation energy significantly. There is no plant retrofit, no factory site visit, no commissioning team.

Inside this additive manufacturing case study: what the AM lab explores

With the Sinterit Lisa installed, the Gautzsch team can experiment across a wide range of parts already in their catalogue. Three lines of investigation run in parallel:

• Scope expansion. Identifying which existing parts in the Gautzsch and Siena Garden ranges suit AM production, either now or in the near term.

• Material feasibility. Testing advanced polymers against the engineering and finish standards the existing product lines demand.

• Supply chain mapping. Comparing the economics of local AM production against established international supply, line by line.

Supply chain mapping is the strategic core. For a distributor, knowing which products will likely shift to AM in the near future is invaluable when designing the distribution networks of the next decade. In effect, the AM lab is a market research tool letting Gautzsch see disruption coming before its competitors do. As an additive manufacturing case study, it doubles as in-house competitive intelligence.

What this means for Australian distributors and product teams

Australian distributors face the same supply chain shift as Gautzsch, and the recent push for sovereign manufacturing capability raises the stakes locally. Importers, wholesalers, and B2B distributors with broad SKU ranges should expect a portion of their catalogue to move to local AM production within the next five to ten years. The question is not whether this shift happens, but which lines move first.

Gautzsch's approach is reproducible at modest cost. An in-house Sinterit SLS lab gives a buying team direct visibility on which SKUs print well, which materials hold up, and where local AM beats international procurement on landed cost. It is the cheapest way to build a defensible answer to the AM-disruption question before a customer or competitor asks it.

Which Sinterit printer suits exploratory AM today?

The Lisa PRO Gautzsch added to their AM lab has since been superseded. The current flagship is the Sinterit Lisa X, a faster, larger-build version of the same compact SLS platform, with support for advanced polymers including PA-12 Industrial, PA-11 ESD, and Flexa Performance TPU. For teams starting smaller, the Sinterit Suzy gives the same workflow at a lower entry price.

Both printers share the practical features making the Lisa a fit for the Gautzsch AM lab: office-grade footprint, no extra ventilation requirement, and a polymer library deep enough to test real product applications. A fuller overview sits in our Sinterit Lisa X overview, and the broader SLS workflow is covered in our guide to what SLS 3D printing is.

"For a company at the beginning of an investigation, support from, and discussion with the technology experts is extremely beneficial." Peter Benthues, Executive Board member at H. Gautzsch

Frequently asked questions

What is an additive manufacturing case study?

An additive manufacturing case study is a documented account of how a business uses 3D printing or related AM technologies to change a specific workflow, product, or capability. H. Gautzsch is one example, exploring AM's impact on the distribution model itself rather than a single product line.

Why would a distributor invest in an AM lab?

Distributors are exposed to AM disruption because in-house and local AM production can replace the international supply lines they traditionally manage. An AM lab gives a distributor first-hand visibility on which SKUs will move to AM, when, and at what landed cost.

What materials can the Sinterit Lisa platform print?

Today's Sinterit Lisa X platform supports PA-12 Industrial, PA-12 Smooth, PA-11 CF, PA-11 Onyx, PA-11 ESD, PA-11.5, Flexa Performance TPU, and Polypropylene. Lisa PRO, the original printer Gautzsch used, had a narrower library.

Does the Sinterit Lisa need a dedicated production room?

No. The Sinterit Lisa does not require extra ventilation and occupies less floor space than a typical office scanner or printer. This is a key reason it suits in-house AM labs inside existing offices, as the Gautzsch deployment shows.

Which Sinterit SLS printer should an Australian distributor start with?

Sinterit Suzy fits exploratory teams at a lower entry cost. Lisa X is the production-grade choice once an AM strategy moves beyond proof-of-concept. Both share the same compact, office-grade form factor.

How long does it take to see results from an in-house AM lab?

An exploratory AM lab produces useful signal inside the first quarter of operation. Hard supply chain rerouting decisions usually emerge over 12 to 24 months, as the team builds confidence in materials and tests against real customer requirements.

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Want to explore an AM lab of your own? Talk to our team about the Lisa X, the Suzy, or the right material library for your existing product range. We can help you map the capital outlay against your current procurement spend.

Want to view our range of Sinterit SLS printers? Click here.

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3D Printer 3D Printers additive manufacturing AM lab case study distribution in-house manufacturing Manufacturing Sinterit Sinterit Lisa SLS 3D Printing