Industrial Additive Manufacturing
Industrial additive manufacturing applications are primarily linked to prototyping in the automotive field and early adoption for production in the aerospace segment, which is by far the biggest user of polymer and especially metal 3D printing technologies.
As the machines production throughput has increased in recent years, industrial adoption of AM is now beginning to extend to short and medium batch production for the automotive segment as well. Furthermore, as new metal and polymer technologies now enable the production of larger parts at reduced costs, the use of AM has begun to contaminate the energy segment (with applications in both traditional and sustainable energy production and transport) and the marine segment.
While the cost and time reduction benefits of AM technologies for weight and (topology) optimization, subassemblies and generative part design have been well documented, several hurdles still exist that are limiting a widespread adoption of these key technologies in full end-to-end digital and automated production cycles. Several of these hurdles are inherent to the AM technologies and related material availability, however, the biggest challenges remain linked to process standardization, part finishing and repeatability.
Today every major aerospace or automotive manufacturers has made some significant stride toward adoption of AM both for internal R&D and production and by leveraging external 3D printing service bureaus as a key resource for outsourced supplies. Every AM related industrial project is growing and the trend is clearly accelerating.
Latest industrial AM news:
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Siemens will be showcasing its Digital Enterprise portfolio of seamless integrated solutions for additive manufacturing under the banner “Industrialize Additive Manufacturing” at formnext 2018, the lead exhibition for Additive Manufacturing (AM), in Frankfurt, Germany. The focus of the exhibition will be a digital representation of the real world – a…
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The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) announced the expansion of an existing agreement with America Makes to increase its role in the collection of performance data for the 3D printing industry. UTEP, which became the first America Makes Satellite Center in 2015, says the updated partnership will not…
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American technology company Harris Corporation has utilized Nano Dimension’s electronic 3D printing technology to successfully manufacture a radio frequency (RF) amplifier. The electronic components, printed on the DragonFly Pro, have demonstrated performances comparable to those of a traditionally manufactured RF circuit, marking an exciting milestone for 3D printed electronics. Harris…
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Tooling solutions company Wilson Tool International has revealed how it turned to Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis technology to 3D print a line of oil reservoirs for its QuickTap tapping tool. The additive manufacturing technology enabled the company to bring its cost savings up to 60% and reduce its lead times…
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“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” a common phrase we often hear, especially when something in business is working. I think the opposite is true! Just when your business model is working, it’s time to put effort into shifting gears in the opposite direction. The reality is that when…
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Austrian motorcycle, bicycle and sports car manufacturer KTM is a major adopter of AM technologies. Today many of the company’s R&D activities with additive manufacturing take place through its KTM Technologies division, which in turn includes several different companies and AM service bureaus. KTM was among the first clients of…
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Innovation comes from companies and well funded organizations, sure. But it also comes from individuals. Individuals who have ideas and who have the space to grow those ideas. This is the driving concept behind many design and manufacturing challenges, including the recently launched Manufacturing Innovator Challenge orchestrated by the U.S.…
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With Airforce, Army and Navy bases and academies, the State of Maryland is a key hub for US military might. Now Aberdeen, Maryland, is going to also become the hub for a major additive manufacturing (3D printing) initiative, leading to higher speed in parts production, new weapon system design and…
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Conflux Technology, an Australian company specializing in additive manufacturing applications, has focused its efforts on developing new and innovative solutions for thermal and fluid engineering. In a recent case study, the company details how it utilized EOS’ metal 3D printing technology to prototype and produce a new and more efficient…
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The CRIQ (also known as the “Centre de recherche industrielle du Québec”) is a research organization run by the Quebec government in Canada which undertakes over a thousand projects a year to push forward industrial innovation. In recent years, one of these projects has revolved around the adoption of additive…
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