Press Release

LEUVEN, Belgium, Nov. 17, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In April of this year, Materialise NV (NASDAQ:MTLS), a leading provider of additive manufacturing software and of sophisticated 3D printing solutions in the medical and industrial markets, announced that they had obtained EN9100 and EASA 21G certification; authorizing the Company to deliver airworthy additive manufactured end-use parts. Today, Materialise is proud to announce that their certified Factory for 3D Printing is now manufacturing plastic parts for Airbus's A350 XWB.

A new generation of aircraft, the A350 XWB offers 25 per cent lower fuel consumption in addition to highest comfort standards for passengers. These improvements reflect Airbus's focus on meeting the modern requirements of travelers, whose long-range flights are increasing in both frequency and distance. For its newest A350 XWB, Airbus introduced a high level of intelligence through the integration of simple, robust and efficient state-of-the-art systems, which ensure reliability and lower maintenance requirements. With these objectives in mind, it should come as no surprise that certain end-use parts of the A350 XWB are being 3D printed, especially given the benefits that this technology offers in terms of topology optimization and functional integration.

"Airbus understands and appreciates the benefits that 3D printing - or more appropriately in this case, Additive Manufacturing (AM) – can bring to the most modern widebody aircraft: the A350 XWB. In addition, with one of the most thorough test programmes developed for a jetliner, the use of AM end-use parts sends a strong signal about the reliability and quality that AM can deliver today," stated Materialise Executive Vice President of Production, Bart Van der Schueren. "For 25 years, Materialise has been working to improve AM through an ever more sophisticated software offering, and a Factory for 3D Printing that manufactures parts that meet the needs of even the most demanding of industries, including the health care, automotive and aerospace sectors. As such, we are very proud to now be delivering end-use, flight-ready parts to Airbus."

About Materialise

With its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, and branches worldwide, Materialise is a provider of Additive Manufacturing (AM) software solutions and sophisticated 3D printing services in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design and consumer products. Materialise has been playing an active role in the field of AM since 1990, through its involvement in AM for industrial and medical applications, by providing biomedical and clinical solutions such as medical image processing and surgical simulations and by developing unique solutions for its customers' prototyping, production, and medical needs. For additional information, please visit: www.materialise.com.  

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the plans, objectives, expectations, strategies and prospects of the Company, both financial and business. Such statements are subject to known and unknown uncertainties and risks. When used in this press release, the words "estimate," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "plan," "intend," "believe," "forecast," "will", "may", "could", "might", "aim", "should" and variations of such words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon the management's current expectations. These expectations, beliefs and projections are given in good faith and management believes there is a reasonable basis for them. However, the management cannot offer any assurance that its expectations, beliefs and projections will actually be achieved. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events, competitive dynamics and industry change, and depend on economic circumstances that may or may not occur in the future or may occur on longer or shorter timelines than anticipated. Management cautions readers that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are in some cases beyond its control. All of the forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Management makes no commitment, and disclaims any duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or changes in its expectations.

CONTACT: Press contacts:

         Materialise

         Vanessa Palsenbarg
         Corporate Communications Specialist, Materialise
         Phone: +32 16 39 66 37
         Fax: +32 16 39 66 00
         Email: Vanessa.Palsenbarg@materialise.be
         Twitter: @belgiancanuck or @MaterialiseNV
         Visit: www.materialise.com