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3D Printing: Looking for a Breakthrough that can Increase Volumes/Velocity
Manufacturers are increasingly trying to get a glimpse of the future by experimenting with 3D printing technology. Manufacturers that have kicked the tires and are giving it limited use come from across a wide range of industries, including aerospace, medical, automotive, consumer products, architecture, and electronics. A report by PwC found that two thirds of manufacturers have at least experimented with the technology.
As 3D printing technology becomes increasingly more capable and more cost-effective for larger-scale commercial manufacturing, the market for 3D printing and associated printers, materials and parts will increase. Lux Research expects the market to reach $12 billion by 2025. And of that, only $7 billion is for the printers themselves.
Today, 3D printing is most widely used for prototypes, molds, and tooling. But of those, prototyping to accelerate product design is by far the greatest use. Final product manufacturing with 3D printing is typically very low volume.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) says that “3-D Printing Will Change the World.” But volume, or at least ‘volumes at higher velocity’, is currently the problem. The 3D printing industry currently needs to get a breakthrough in pushing through higher volumes before it can truly overtake standard manufacturing techniques.
The PwC report warns that “despite these [strong growth] trends, the 3D printing industry faces challenges. Rapid prototyping will remain important but is not the game-changer that will expand the technology into high-volume use cases. The industry should pivot to printing more fully functional and finished products or components in volumes that greatly outnumber the volumes of prototypes produced.”
But despite the challenges, Richard A. D’Aveni, Professor of Strategy at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, thinks that “this new technology will change again how the world leans.”
