Additive Manufacturing (AM), more commonly known as 3D printing, has had the potential to change the face of manufacturing for over 30 years. However, while consumer adoption of this technology is an all-time high buoyed by a flood of entry-level 3D printers on the market, the manufacturing industry appears to be lagging.
Each week there seems to be a new demonstration of the potential for the technology, whether it is printing concrete, carbon fiber, glass or even food. There seems to be no shortage of applications where this technology can be applied, yet the AM share of the manufacturing market pie still remains small.
It can be speculated that AM’s lethargy in revolutionizing the industry has not come from a lack of vision of what the technology can offer us, but through a lack of confidence in the quality of the parts able to be produced. But this attitude seems to be changing. What we are seeing, certainly in the past two years, is a palpable shift in attitude within the industry with more and more businesses acknowledging the advantages that AM delivers. This growth can be witnessed in the increasing share of production parts, rather than prototypes, being produced by third-party printing services.
Given this shift and the benefits this technology has for the low to mid-scale manufacturing, it just might be time to reconsider your design and manufacturing options and leverage the significant advantages this technology is starting to offer.