Laser-based powder bed fusion of metals (PBF-LB/M) enables the production of metal parts with a high degree of design freedom. While previously being limited to single materials, novel recoating mechanisms allow material to be deposited voxel-wise, making 3D multi-material components possible. The resulting arbitrary material distribution in all three spatial directions enables shape-optimized components with locally adapted material properties, allowing technologically contradictory properties to be resolved (effect engineering).