The Application Center for Additive Manufacturing (AAF) was founded in 2020 as part of the Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Production Systems (FBK) at the TU Kaiserslautern. The funding for the AAF is provided by the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE) and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The core of the application center is a novel high speed laser metal deposition machine that enables additive manufacturing at significantly increased buildup rates. In addition to its research tasks, the AAF is available to interested companies as a contact partner for all additive manufacturing topics.