The most popular and comprehensive Open Source ECM platform
Let us know more
3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing: Manufacturers Increasingly Use AM for Rapid Production
World-class manufacturers increasingly use 3D printing to help with both rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing. A recent report by Stratasys looked at trends impacting 3D printing.
Some of the findings of the Stratasys report include:
- 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing (AM) is expected to become much more commonplace in the manufacture of end-user parts. Aerospace and automotive sectors are expected to increase manufacture of end-user parts the most.
- The two most significant benefits of AM are complex design capabilities (79 percent) and reduced lead time for parts (76 percent)
- By 2018, AM is expected to expand rapidly into manufacturing tools, tooling and patterns, and trial/bridge production segments
- The use of metal with AM is expected to double in the next 3 years
- Strong desire for AM to be able to handle rubber (61 percent) and high-temperature plastics (61 percent)
- Outsourcing of manufacturing to AM specialists is expected to grow
Joe Allison, CEO of Stratasys, said that “3D printing is really changing how products are being manufactured… Right now [AM] is going through a transition from the first 15 years when we were changing how prototypes were made. About 10 years ago the technology caught on, and since then the market fully adopted using the technology to quickly and efficiently create prototypes.”
