Traditionally, around the turn of the year, Materialize looks ahead to the trend we will see in additive manufacturing next year. Smart decentralized production is number 1. This requires data and automation, as well as reducing costs. These four themes will dominate developments in the AM industry this year, according to Materialize.
Three years ago, Materialize founder and CEO Fried Vancraen spoke on the eve of 2020 regarding themes such as sustainability and risk management that would dominate the AM industry in 2020 and beyond. Sustainability is still at play; but as much as the sector wants it, demonstrating that 3D printing is a more sustainable production technique than others is proving more difficult than perhaps thought at the time.
Decentralized production requires a change in thinking; more long-term thinking
Risk management and Covid19
Vancraen hit the mark with risk management at the end of 2019, not knowing that a few months later the world would go into lockdown and 3D printing as a solution to cover supply chain risks was at the top of many CEO’s agendas. His prediction for the first trend in the AM industry this year echoes that of several years ago: decentralized manufacturing. The Materialize team cites factors such as the Covid pandemic, the growing awareness of sustainability and the geopolitical tensions that are driving manufacturing companies to rethink existing supply chains and production techniques. Digital production techniques form the foundation for smaller-scale production locations, closer to the customers.
With smart, digital technologies like 3D printing, manufacturers can make the shift to operating through multiple smaller-scale production sites that sit closer to their customers.
Turn to long-term thinking
This requires a change in thinking. Away from looking for short-term solutions, often the basis of current success stories regarding decentralized production, and looking more for long-term solutions. For which products does 3D printing deliver the most value from a supply chain efficiency and sustainability point of view? Materialize gives CNH, the agricultural equipment manufacturer, as an example of a company considering the strategic use of additive manufacturing to make supply chains more cost-effective. The potential is great, also in other sectors.
In the end, smart Distributed Manufacturing, enabled by 3D printing and when done strategically, can be a successful strategy in its own right, rather than an ad hoc response to problems with global supply chains.
Costs in the AM industry must be reduced
Costs of 3D printing must be reduced
However, the Trend Defining team at Materialize is aware that decentralized manufacturing will never fully take hold if the cost of 3D printing remains high. Even if you know that 3D printing is all regarding added value that you can realize in all kinds of ways, such as weight savings, better performance and supply chain efficiency; even then, the printing process itself must be cost-efficient. Here, Materialize cites things like software and data. Software allows for a more efficient build and helps optimize the printing process to make it more efficient and repeatable. Improving quality is also necessary to reduce costs, especially the automation of quality control. But more is needed to reduce costs, says the world’s largest AM company.
3D printing continues to transform the factory floor as companies increasingly turn to the technology for large-scale production. But to accelerate this adoption, our industry will have to make extra efforts to reduce the cost of 3D printing.
Automation of the AM workflow
And that requires, for example, automating the workflow in the AM industry and not just the process. Not only necessary to reduce the costs of the many manual work; also because qualified employees are increasingly difficult to find. A recent survey by Materialize shows that hiring employees with the right experience is a top priority for most companies in the 3D printing industry. If you then talk regarding scaling up AM production to millions of units, automation is indispensable. Software will once more play a role in this, but in a different way than before, says Materialize. Automating the individual steps in the process is giving way to automating the entire workflow. This also applies, for example, to the medical industry, if it wants to use more personalized 3D printed solutions.
The promise of large-scale, industrial 3D printing requires us to automate each process but also the flow between them. This is what we call workflow automation.
Data security and integrity
Platforms will play a role in this. It is not for nothing that Materialize took over the American platform Link3D at the end of last year. This brings into focus the fourth and final trend for 2023 and beyond: data security and integrity. Especially when you move to decentralized production models, with AM facilities spread over multiple locations, securing data becomes an absolute top priority.
A smart production process ensures that all 3D-printed components have the same quality, no matter where they are produced. Creating such a process is complex and time-consuming, but it allows companies to leap ahead of the competition. That’s why, in addition to data security, data integrity is becoming top of mind for companies that embrace digital manufacturing.
