The Age

unique requirements. Predicve maintenance has also been proposed whereby a printer could be aached to equipment to fix components, increasing the life span of that component and addressing wear and tear

Sustainability

3DP addresses many quesons of sustainability that have become so topical of late. Not only would transportaon costs be reduced as alluded to above, but evoluon of the technology could make the designs themselves, more energy and fuel efficient. Unlike tradional manufacturing where raw materials are subtracted resulng in waste, the process of addive manufacturing in itself sees reduced waste in terms of energy used for producon and that of raw materials. It is also foreseen that used or faulty parts can be recycled allowing for the re-use of their raw materials further adding to the sustainability of 3DP