State of the industry AM projections for 2024
Software
Build processors, digital threads & AI
MAG NORTH AMERICAN EDITION VOLUME 10 ISSUE 1
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HIGHER POWER EOS on maximizing production for aluminum and copper.
3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing Intelligence
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Cover story 6. HIGHER POWER
6 9
EOS on how it's aiming to reduce cost per part with its newly launched EOS M 300-4 1kW metal additive manufacturing machine.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY SPONSORED BY
9. AM IN 2024
Across five pages, the TCT editorial team highlights additive manufacturing’s ones to watch, while also getting the predictions of several industry experts. Where does Desktop Metal go from here? And what are the key trends in aerospace, automotive and beyond?
SOFTWARE & SIMULATION
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16. THE FUTURE OF AM
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CREATIVE
23. PIPE UP
With AI on the rise, Oliver Johnson looks at how Nexa3D is incorporating the technology into one of its additive manufacturing software solutions.
Sam reports on the use of 3D printing to create geometrically complex organ pipes in Finland.
25. DRESS TO IMPRESS
19. BUILDING BRIDGES
Materialise CTO Bart van der Schueren speaks to Laura Griffiths about quality control, build processors and process parameters.
20. COLLECT & CONNECT
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Sam Davies explores the hurdles that are preventing manufacturers from implementing digital threads for their AM workflows.
How Chromatic 3D Materials teamed up with fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht to 3D print 75 flexible LED domes onto the fabric of a dress.
26. PRETTY ODD
Ahead of the AMUG 2024 Conference, Laura speaks to keynote speaker Olaf Diegel about the importance of creativity in accelerating industrial applications.
EXPERT COLUMN
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28. WHAT TO EXPECT THIS YEAR As the title suggests, industry commentator Terry Wohlers provides an array of near-term forecasts for the AM space.
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VOL 10 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 03
Seeking inspiration?
Discover fascinating applications across diverse industries! Explore compelling examples showcasing the versatility of metallic 3D printing. From aerospace to automotive, we've got innovative solutions that redefine possibilities. Find your inspiration in our curated collection of unique application examples! More information at http://www.trumpf.info/1gickj
FROM THE EDITOR
FROM THE EDITOR SAM DAVIES
For what is additive? On an uneventful weekend after the holiday season, I found myself looking up at the bedroom wall, picture frame in hand, surrounded by a selection of adhesive strips, drywall hangers, and other nail alternatives. The plan, having been fortunate enough to receive a couple of pieces of wall art for Christmas, was to mount the gifts on the wall without leaving any lasting damage. Even in its simplest form, DIY is not my bag, but I trusted the various wall-hanging products to be able to grip against the plastered wall and hold firm the modestly priced wooden frame. There was nothing to suggest on the packaging the strips and hangers wouldn’t be suitable, and yet it would take multiple attempts for the frame to hold in place and stop crashing to the floor. It’s only that I’m generally useless at this kind of thing that I persevered. Had I fancied myself as an expert, I’d have likely determined that the tools at my disposal were ineffective, chucked them in a drawer, and done things the oldfashioned way. And if that approach was implemented by everyone, the market for nail alternatives might hit a bump in the road, and commentators would note the application of the products was stalling. That’s why we all empathize whenever we hear of a manufacturer adopting additive manufacturing (AM) technology only to conclude that it doesn’t work, doesn’t suit the application, and the time and effort to figure it all out is just taking too long. We understand, sure, but the mission of everybody working in the AM industry is
to have more organizations adopt, apply and scale with the technology. Plenty would agree that AM is not the be all and end all. That should be known, it should be accepted, and it should be considered whenever we bemoan the perceived slow-down in application development. As an industry projecting outward, ‘AM is just another tool in the toolbox’ is one of our favorite phrases, but do we reflect on that ourselves? It could be that as an industry we’re rubbish at communicating the opportunities of AM so a curb in application development has followed, or so good that there are no more opportunities left to pursue, but more likely is there are still some technological challenges to solve. Which, as long as you’ve not invested a fortune into any given company, is actually okay. When asked on a recent Additive Insight podcast episode about how we are forever discussing the same challenges in AM, Mechano’s Olga Ivanova simply retorted that that’s how we keep our jobs. We keep at it, day after day, so that soon, pursued opportunities become accomplished applications. But the high standards of end users mean there’s still work to do. And there always will be. AM isn’t dead (as other trade publications have suggested), it’s a manufacturing method that’s still maturing, traversing the ups and downs that confront it. There will be many that weather the storm of the post-Covid era, and others who won’t, but in several sectors, AM continues to prove worthy of its place in the toolbox.
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HIGHER P EOS on maximizing production for aluminum and copper.
T
he last time an EOS machine featured on the front cover of TCT Magazine, it was an EOS M 300-4 with a simple but baiting question: ‘Can your machine do this?’ Now the industrial 3D printing company is answering its own call and one-upping its own poster child for the ‘modern metal AM system’ with the launch of the EOS M 3004 1kW, a new metal additive manufacturing (AM) machine that’s equipped with four one-kilowatt lasers and enough power to tackle additive’s most challenging and indemand materials.
It also includes the new high-strength EOS Aluminum Al5X1, first introduced at last year’s RAPID + TCT, to deliver parts with 14% elongation at break and an ultimate tensile strength of 410 MPa. The material is said to require only a single-step heat treatment with no Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), and parts can be electropolished and anodized (Type II and Type III) for both cosmetic and corrosion resistant protective properties, making it suitable for a range of applications and industries. "Aluminum is a very inexpensive material, so the reason additive manufacturing hasn't cracked into this area in the past is
“With high productivity, we can be more cost effective.”
Having already broke the productivity barrier with its predecessor, last November the Laser Powder Bed Fusion pioneer unveiled its next evolution, designed to push that productivity even further, and meet growing market demand for copper and aluminum applications. "We have four times one kilowatt lasers on the system, which is helping us unlock even higher productivity and new materials for our customers,” Monica Smith, Product Line Manager Metal Systems at EOS, told TCT. “Specifically, it allows us to process aluminum in a way we haven't been able to do before, that no one's really been able to do before, where we're really competing with the die cast industry for aluminum parts.” With a build volume of 300 x 300 x 400 mm and a build rate of 154 mm³/s (or 555 cm³/h), the EOS M 300-4 1kW is engineered towards enduse applications in aviation, transport, energy and defense, and specifically those requiring AlSi10Mg, CuCP and CuCrZr. This year, the list of compatible materials is set to feature nickel-based alloys, titanium, cobalt chrome, steels and stainless steels.
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SHOWN:
EOS M 300-4 1kW
RIGHT:
Part printed in EOS Copper Cu
COVER STORY
POWER because of the cost. I think in the past a lot of people have quoted aluminum parts that they would usually die cast and it has not been cost effective for them,” Sebastian Becker, Head of Metal Systems at EOS, explained. “Now, because we have this higher productivity on the system, we're starting to be able to get into a competitive area in aluminum. With high productivity, we can be more cost effective.” SEE THE LIGHT The combination of high productivity and cost efficiency is all being enabled by the EOS M 300-4 ‘light engine’. Much like an engine to a car, the ‘light engine’ is at the heart of the machine. “It's the most important group of components,” as Sebastian explained, and EOS has strengthened its engine with future generations of customers in mind to include two-axis scanning units for maximized build efficiency.
“The M 300-4 with the new light engine - the combination of laser and scanner units - is capable of bringing much higher productivity with AlSi10Mg, but we'll also show this on the Aluminum Al5X1,” Becker said. “Step by step, we will now bring materials onto this machine to increase its capabilities.” Aluminum Al5X1 is slated to be one of the next materials made available for the system, while in copper, CuCP will launch first. To date, EOS has seen the strongest demand for its copper capabilities in heat exchanger applications, but more recently, thanks to advancements in pulse wave emission, has also pioneered new possibilities for incredibly thin-walled and finely detailed components in e-mobility. Traditionally, printing with copper has been a challenge due to the metal's reflectivity and high thermal conductivity, but after initially proving out the material on its EOS M 290-1kW system, this latest hardware is thought to be taking copper 3D printing to the next level. “With certain copper materials, it comes down to the laser power, so that specific part of the light engine,” Smith said. “You really need a lot of power in the specific spot where you're melting the material. That hasn't been possible before.”
HIGHER, FURTHER, FASTER With this combination of machine power and material diversity, EOS envisions customers producing small and mid-size parts like brackets, holders, antennas, and heat exchangers in alumnium, alongside inductors, e-mobility components, and indeed, more heat exchangers in copper or copper alloys. Prior to launch, EOS Aluminum Al5X1 was tested by several organizations in the semiconductor, aerospace and defense space where its performance and cost-per-part are said to have built a secured business case for AM production. One of those early users was metals AM specialist Sintavia, which spent last year working with primes in the aerospace and defense sector to develop Al5X1 performance data and material allowables, with a specific focus on its thermodynamic product lines. With the EOS M 3004 1kW in its metals portfolio, EOS believes it now offers some of the lowest cost-per-part figures in the industry. “I think we continue breaking new barriers every year,” Smith concluded. “There's always a new improvement. That's really what we're always looking at - how can we reduce the cost per part? Because that's the main barrier of entry for most of our customers. At the end of the day, they want to make money, they want to save costs, and I also think that design for additive is a piece of it. We have to educate and make sure that everyone is designing with additive in mind. "That's always our main driver for innovation for our customers. How can we make this technology accessible to them and how can we also make it profitable for them?”
SHOWN:
Parts printed in Aluminium Al5X1
VOL 10 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 07
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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
AM IN 2024 SPONSORED BY
Our content team and TCT Expert Advisors provide a snapshot of the AM topics we’ll be keeping a close eye on this year.
AEROSPACE Vertical integrations on the cards
Hyphen Innovations, a relatively new company, is the name behind a TCT award-winning aerospace innovation, i-DAMP. i-DAMP, meaning inherent Damping via Additive Manufacturing Processes, was developed to be a solution for unpredictable and underperforming fatigue properties in aerospace associated with additive manufacturing. Although the application is aerospace focused, it is having numerous benefits for customers in other industries as well. Other applications that are benefitting from i-DAMP include automotive vibration suppression, fatigue in train car components, shock absorption, and noise reduction. Founder, CEO, and CTO of the company, Onome Scott-Emuakpor says that with Hyphen Innovations, he will “create the impossible” on a canvas that will define the future of aerospace and defense technologies. Scott-Emuakpor told TCT: “Hyphen Innovations anticipates significant growth in i-DAMP
applications this year. We are currently in collaboration with The Ohio State University, EOS North America, and GE Aerospace on a funded project to demonstrate the damage resistance capability of i-DAMP in turbine engine blades. We also have a collaboration with the University of Akron on incorporating i-DAMP to Integrally Bladed Rotor repairs while introducing a novel stress relieving machining capability to the procedures. “Our work in the aerospace industry has always been the motivation for i-DAMP. But what we're most excited about this year is how i-DAMP capabilities transcend a single industry. We've received i-DAMP interest to solve problems like fatigue in train cars, reducing vibration in machining, cutting, and boring tools, and shock absorption for the automotive industry. And the exciting thing about all this activity is that it's only January. We're certainly looking forward to what the next 11 months has in store for i-DAMP.”
It is no secret that many additive manufacturing companies have felt the impact of recent economic conditions, with end users becoming much more cautious with their capital expenditure. While the economic uncertainty has made some clutch their purse strings a little tighter, it could represent opportunity for others to vertically integrate elements of their supply chain with the acquisition of hardware, service, software or materials providers. Align Technology’s purchase of Cubicure and Meta’s takeover of Luxexcel are two recent examples, and there may be more to come yet.
ROBERT HIGHAM | Founder and CEO | Additive Manufacturing Solutions Ltd. Well, the last couple of years have seen a flood to market of machines in the metallic powder bed fusion space and a lesser flood, more of a stream, of self-integrated wire arc additive systems. My prediction is the dam that is the geopolitical and financial position the UK is at will restrict this to a trickle. This is good news. My next prediction is that we will start seeing users of these machines, and hopefully the primes and end applications outsourcing to these users will start looking for key outputs of productivity, cost, sustainability impact and material knowledge with a significant amount more interest. This will potentially drive AM up the industrialization curve.
VOL 10 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 09
ENERGY
and crucial, source of energy for the future. But getting there will be no easy feat.
Source: University of Birmingham
“In general, nuclear fusion is relatively uncharted territory,” Professor Moataz Attallah, Director of the Advanced Materials Processing Lab at the University of Birmingham, told TCT. “People don't know how to qualify material or which manufacturing techniques to use.” In phase one, researchers completed a successful feasibility study to explore laser powder bed fusion as an assisting technology for nuclear fusion cooling structures made from tungsten, believed to be one of the key materials in our fusion future due to its extreme temperature resistance. With phase two now underway, Professor Attallah says it’s all about scaling up, and the team is developing a ‘proof of concept’ to prove that the material properties achieved in its small-scale demonstrator can be replicated on a larger scale. If the point of additive manufacturing (AM) is not to do things the way we’ve always done them, and nuclear fusion is to be the ‘holy grail’ of our ambitions for clean energy, then 2024 could see the two colliding like a couple of atomic nuclei. In December, The University of Birmingham was awarded nearly 1.5 million GPB by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to research technology for fusion energy. The funding will go towards the FATHOM2 project (FAbrication of Tungsten using HOt isostatic pressing and Additive Manufacturing), which focuses on scaling
up 3D printing and powder HIPping technologies to produce complex, cooled tungsten components for plasma-facing components in nuclear fusion reactors. Fusion energy is created when a mix of two forms of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) is heated to form a controlled plasma at temperatures around 10 times hotter than the sun’s core. They fuse to create helium and release energy which can be harnessed to produce electricity. With its raw material, hydrogen, in abundance and the potential to produce energy with near-zero carbon emissions, nuclear fusion is thought to be a cleaner,
The rise of AI "AI is going to change pretty much everything simply because it gives us an alternative intelligence," said RepRap founder Adrian Bowyer on an upcoming Additive Insight podcast episode. As such, you can expect to see an uptick in the mention of AI in additive manufacturing (AM) this year, and not just as a buzzword shoehorned into marketing campaigns. The
capability of AI lends itself well to AM, with multiple software tools already leaning on the technology. We detail how Nexa3D is using AI to optimize build orientation on page 16, but 1000 Kelvin, AI Build and Markforged are among the others with AI-enhanced products on the market. From design through to inspection, more and more companies will turn to AI to advance their AM offerings.
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In October, the UK Government announced its 650 million GBP Fusion Futures Programme as part of its updated Fusion Strategy. There is a growing private sector for nuclear fusion in the UK, and if this project is successful, the aim is to commercialize. With around 15 months left to deliver, the university has teamed up with Metamorphic Additive Manufacturing Ltd. and Oxford-based nuclear fusion start-up Tokamak Energy Ltd. to accelerate development. "The presence of the industry has been a key aspect for us working with Tokamak Energy because they bring that reality that we were missing as academics or people working in the field,” Professor Attallah added. “It was quite exciting to walk inside a nuclear fusion reactor
CANDICE MAJEWSKI Senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering | The University of Sheffield My number one wish for 2024 is to see some completely new applications for additive manufacturing. We always see lots of great examples of AM across many sectors, but I'd love to see someone come up with something none of us has ever thought of. With all the new people entering the industry from all kinds of backgrounds, I’m sure we’ve got plenty of opportunities for imaginative new ideas to take AM to the next level!
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
and see how things look, essentially trying to create a small sun on earth.” The university is one of nine institutions which secured a slice of the 11.6 million GPB in funding to focus on manufacturing and materials. Another is TWI, which is focusing on the use of cold-spray technology and its subsurface machining technology, CoreFlow to create large-scale components from fusion-grade materials. Elsewhere in the UK, on a recent episode of the Additive Insight podcast, Dr. Evren Yasa, Head of Additive Manufacturing at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, shared another example from a Catapult project exploring the feasibility of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) for the manufacture of liquid hydrogen storage tanks. "Hydrogen is considered to be the fuel of the future due to its advantages, but still the storage of this fuel is problematic because you need to store it either in a pressurized gas form or a liquid state, and both of them require different specifications," Dr. Yasa told TCT. "Therefore, in this recent project, we have investigated the feasibility of using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing for making liquid hydrogen storage tanks from aluminum alloys. We have chosen that method because it provides the advantages of large-scale manufacturing, as well as being able [to deliver] geometries that may be necessary for compact areas to store hydrogen.”
JONATHAN ROWLEY | AM Consultant and founder of AM Manifest My heartfelt wish is that DfAM, in all its forms, continues to grow in its general understanding. When more people design well for AM, at whatever level and for whatever application, they produce purposeful parts. Good results build individual faith in the technologies, and this opens the way to explore
Building momentum
For every cynicism-inducing ‘world’s first 3D printed office block’, there are modest examples that show where rapid AM construction can add value. At the end of 2023, Mighty Buildings, together with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Habitat for Humanity, announced it had
more varieties with confidence. Anything that helps to share and disseminate this information in an accessible format is the key to widest meaningful AM adoption. A growth in this understanding makes predictions redundant as the value of great AM outcomes speak for themselves and only breed more.
received a 5 million USD grant to develop sustainable and affordable housing in California. The project will see three prefabricated lowcarbon townhouses produced using Mighty Buildings’ proprietary stone-like LUMUS 3D printing material, robotics, and automation. The homes are expected to be built faster than traditional construction methods, with Scott Gebicke, CEO of Mighty Buildings, envisioning a future “where affordable, resilient, and energy-efficient homes are the standard, not an exception.”
Japan goes big When Chris Connery guested on TCT's Additive Insight podcast last year, he noted a positive shift in Japan’s quiet AM adoption, and recognition of 3D printing as a “key technology." News of service provider Kurimoto establishing Japan’s largest metal AM facility certainly supports that. With a fleet of 24 polymer AM systems and auxiliary technologies
already in-house, Kurimoto is entering the metal AM market with newly installed LPBF machines from GF Machining Solutions, including the large DMP Factory 500, meaning Kurimoto will now offer the biggest metal parts in Japan combined with depowdering, wire-cutting, and post-processing, backed by a recently obtained JISQ 9100 certification.
President of Kurimoto, Mr. Hidetoshi Kurimoto, told TCT, “Our ambition is to continue to develop 3D printing technology, which is attracting attention not only in Japan but also around the world for nextgeneration applications in key industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace, defense, and electric vehicles.”
VOL 10 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 011
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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
AUTOMOTIVE Gigacasting is among the biggest trends in the automotive sector, with some of the largest brands in the space jostling and jousting for key casting suppliers. General Motors caused Tesla a significant headache in November with the acquisition of Tooling & Equipment International (TEI), who were one of four gigacasting suppliers to the Californian automotive giant. The gigacasting process sees casts for large automotive structures
manufactured in one piece, eliminating the need for welding and assembly, and saving on labor, time, and cost. With the help of TEI, Tesla implemented the gigacasting process for its Model Y vehicle; the rear and front portions of the vehicle’s frame being made in two single pieces. When compared to Tesla’s Model 3, that’s said to amount to a reduction from 171 assembled components, 1,600 welds and around 300 robots being removed from the assembly line.
What next for Desktop?
Six months ago, Desktop Metal was waiting with bated breath for the completion of its merger with Stratasys. It would have provided a helping hand for a company that was struggling to reach profitability as it endeavored to realize its additive manufacturing 2.0 dream. The Stratasys shareholders, however, had other ideas. Desktop Metal, then, has to chart a different path forward, but it won’t be a walk in the park. A NYSE noncompliance notice may force the company to consider a reverse stock split, while 20% of its workforce has been made redundant in January. Despite CEO Ric Fulop’s insistence that the company will move forward as an independent company, don’t rule out a sale.
As Tesla works towards combining the front and rear frames into one piece, rival automotive firms are looking to emulate its gigacasting methods. Good news, then, for binder jet 3D printing companies. Tesla turned to binder jetting technology because of its inherent design flexibility and rapid iteration capabilities, and with the acquisition of TEI, General Motors has proved Elon Musk’s automotive brand isn’t alone in seeing the benefits. Already, GM’s Cadillac business has utilized TEI’s binder jetting capacity – said to be the largest in North America with three VX4000 3D printers – to support the development of underbody structures for the all-electric CELESTIQ luxury vehicle. The CELESTIQ underbody structure consists of six large precision sand-cast aluminum components, with TEI using its VX4000s – with their 4 x 2 x 1 metre build volumes – to produce the inner cores. In this instance, Cadillac has
been able to incorporate stiffening features into the hollow sections, something deemed economically unfeasible with conventional manufacturing tools.
JENNIFER JOHNS School Interdisciplinary Research Lead & SIMBE Research Director at the University of Bristol Business School & Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab 2024 will very likely see continuing turbulence in the global economy. Continuing supply chain pressures and geopolitical tensions are refocusing business and policymaking attention on the capabilities of AM. The global defence sector will continue to grow, with heightened geopolitical tensions seeing some
reshaping of critical supply chains based on national security concerns. This may see greater reliance on local and regional supply chains. In terms of the AM sector, this year will see further consolidation through merger and acquisition activities, likely between the largest firms and with ongoing vertical consolidation of smaller and specialist firms. As markets focus on AM firm equity values in decline since peaking in 2021, AM firms will be seeking ways of adding value to their offer.
Because of such advantages, all signs point towards an uptick in this application area. “GM and its foundry TEI, who operate three of our VX4000 3D printers, demonstrate that the entire production of a car model can be handled through AM,” Voxeljet CEO Dr. Ingo Ederer told TCT. “Although the CELESTIQ series is a smaller production run, the technological advantages of AM are scalable. Our production data indicates that there is a growing trend towards larger castings, which can be attributed to the design flexibility offered by binder jetting. Additionally, 3D sand printing is becoming more cost-effective, even for larger quantities. This offers numerous opportunities to optimize costs and streamline production steps.”
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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
DEFENSE governments all investing in the technology.
necessity, and second, it has only made worse the supply chain challenges being faced across industry.
In a perfect world, the capabilities of additive manufacturing wouldn’t be required in the defense space.
Thus, the pick-up of 3D printing in defense has sped up in recent years and there’s not too much sign of that slowing down. SPEE3D’s cold spray 3D printing technology is one such process that piqued the interest of many a defense organization since the company came to market in 2017, with the US, Australian and Japanese
But in recent years, an industry that has long had an interest in 3D printing has stepped up its investment and adoption as various points of geopolitical tension evolved into more severe conflicts. That has done two things: First, it has 3D printing’s ability to print parts quickly, in low volumes, at the point of need a
KAT ERMANT | Lead Prototype Technician | Peloton In 2024, it would be great to see an emphasis on recruitment, training, and young talent. Despite the incredible technology being developed that emphasizes autonomy, we will still require skilled and passionate operators to maintain and run our machines. We won't replace talent and skill with better equipment, but we can and should
“With the current geopolitical landscape, there's a strong pull towards supporting defense needs. And, let's face it, the world's got supply chain challenges,” SPEE3D CEO Byron Kennedy told TCT. “Additive manufacturing has a big part to play in the solution – we need to be quicker on our feet and make real, strong parts, fast. We're talking rapid prototyping and making crucial replacement parts on the spot, which can be a game-changer on the front line. We predict that this widespread adoption by defense will instill much needed confidence in other commercial industries, like mining and heavy industrial manufacturing. The technology has proven itself and demonstrated enormous benefits in the defense sector, and we believe it's poised to revolutionize other sectors as well.”
Enter the entrylevel...
While 2023 sales of industrial systems stagnated, a quiet resistance gained traction. According to the latest report from CONTEXT, the often-overlooked entry-level segment dominated with 9% growth in shipments. The report suggests printer users are dismissing more expensive desktop offerings in favor of cheaper, hobbyist machines from the likes of Creality and Bambu Lab, which provide similar or “good enough” capabilities. Meanwhile, the pricier professional price class saw shipments fall for the sixth consecutive quarter, painting a very different picture to 2020/2021 where professional desktop systems enjoyed a boost thanks to work from home scenarios. As most AM investment activity has focused on the industrial class, Chris Connery, Global VP of Analysis at CONTEXT suggests the entrylevel category is “ripe for investment.”
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THE FUTU Oli Johnson speaks to Nexa3D’s Chief Technology Officer Izhar Medalsy about the company’s new Nexa AI software.
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rtificial intelligence. What was the subject of science fiction novels and films not too long ago is now seemingly everywhere in the real world. Everybody is talking about it, many are excited about what it can do, and some are scared that it may replace them in the future. Nexa3D is integrating AI into the additive manufacturing industry in a big way with its new software. In late 2023, Nexa3D launched a new AI platform, developed to automate the endto-end workflow for its XiP Pro 3D printer. Nexa AI is said to simplify the entire workflow, from file preparation through to post processing. Exhibiting the software for the first time at Formnext, Nexa3D said the platform aims to provide users with the print intelligence needed to ensure repeatability and reliability. The aim of the software is to help streamline and automate print workflows, remote monitoring, and print management, while also enabling real-time error detection, intervention, and remediation. Izhar Medalsy, Chief Technology Officer at Nexa3D, told TCT: “We really took it upon ourselves to solve this issue of understanding part print process, part reliability, print reliability, and first time yield, and incorporate the latest and greatest AI and sensor capability to address it. When you look at file preparation softwares today, all of them are looking at geometry. When you’re trying to give your customer feedback, whether the part is printable or not, you usually look at things like thin walls and infills and overhangs and all of those things. But nobody is looking at the physics of the part, how the part is actually being printed. And if you think about it, regardless of your geometry, the reason
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that your part is going to fail while you are printing is mainly due to the forces that are acting on it while printing, right? And specifically for resin, we're talking about peel forces. “When you have this interface layer, whether its a membrane or other interface layers, and you have the build plate on the other side, and you’re pulling this part out of the resin, how do you make sure that the whole physics of the print process is such that you’re not stressing the part too much and not breaking the part. That’s what causes delamination. So when we look at, first and foremost, the physics of the print, and see that as the root cause for many failures, you ask yourself, how do you address that? So what we’ve done is we added to our XiP Pro a host of sensors, that now we can take the information from and do two things. “The first one is, are you confident in the fact that your printer is ready to print? Let's say the user is working remotely, or you have a technician, but actually the person who owns the printer is on another facility or in a different place. How do you know that your build plate is locked? How do you know that your build plate is clean? How do you know that you have the right build plate in place? That ties to automation and workflows. So, we have means to identify all of those things. We can tell you if you have the right build plate, if it's locked, if it's clean.” Medalsy added that the ”real jewel” of the software is that as the relationship between the print process, the geometry, and the physics are understood, Nexa AI can go back to the file preparation stage and tell the user how to optimize their part. He added: “We are for the first time in the industry, closing the loop between print process and file preparation from a
S HOWN:
Nexa XiP Pro
SOFTWARE
URE OF AM SHOWN BELOW:
The Nexa AI platform
Medalsy added: “AI is something that has been close to us for quite a few years now, both myself and Itay [Barel], leader of the software team, are very passionate about it. Obviously, ChatGPT brought it to the attention of everyone, but there was AI before and all of us were aware of it. It was clear that with printing in general, it just gives you an amazing platform to play with AI.” Through using Nexa AI, users of the XiP Pro will have access to a platform that increases its learning with each print, so the efficiency and effectiveness will be continually enhanced. Users will be able to have their Nexa AI platform learn from their own print activity, or if accessing the platform via the cloud, by the wider Nexa XiP Pro user base.
“If you’re not adopting AI, you’re probably going to be left behind.” physical point of view, meaning from the guts of what’s affecting the print.” The program was in development for around two and a half years before the launch, says Medalsy, with the team drawing from shared backgrounds in mechanics and physics, as well as taking lessons learned from previous experiences with AI.
Nexa3D launched the XiP Pro at RAPID + TCT 2023 in Chicago. The system, equipped with a more powerful print engine and a 19.5 litre build volume, delivers the daily output of ‘at least four’ competitive resin printers according to the company. The machine also facilitates the stacking of smaller parts on top of one another to take advantage of its build volume, while a print speed of up to 24 vertical centimetres per hour means the machine can produce its entire build volume within two hours. Speaking about the future of the Nexa AI platform, Medalsy told TCT: “The biggest goal for Nexa AI is to make sure that we are getting smarter, week to week, month to month, year to year, which means
that the data you are getting today, will be better a month from now and a year from now and so on. It will keep addressing all those pain points that we are seeing, we spoke about the print process, but there are many things that are part of an ecosystem of a print. Nexa AI will take part in all of those steps and definitely move on to other platforms. We have both powder and extrusion systems as well as the resin, and there I’m very excited because we can use Vision [AI], which is extremely advanced, and AI will definitely be deployed there as well.”
Medalsy also spoke to TCT about the future use of AI in the additive manufacturing industry as a whole: “If you’re not adopting AI, you’re probably going to be left behind. The reality of the industry and the reality of humanity now is that AI is going to be our counterpart. I don’t think it will take jobs as quickly as people are concerned about, but it will definitely increase productivity and will give us new tools to see things in ways that we haven’t seen them before. When you upload hundreds of millions of data points, whether its your manufacturing process of building the machines, to how users are using your machines, to formulating new materials, AI can do it much better than us. You can see trends, you can see outliers, you can do optimization processes that humans are just not capable of because of the vast amount of data.”
To advertise here and have your business seen by over 5,000 additive design and manufacturing professionals Please contact Carol Cooper on +44 (0) 1244 952 386 or email carol@rapidnews.com VOL 10 ISSUE 1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 017
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all it collaboration or ‘co-creation’ as Materialise championed back in 2017, the push to work with other technology providers and additive manufacturing (AM) end-users is perpetually manifested in the Belgian AM pioneer’s output. Particularly on its stand at Formnext where just a few hours prior to my meeting with Chief Strategy and Technology Officer Bart van der Schueren, the company raised a glass with HP to mark the extension of their partnership. When the company introduced its COAM software platform in 2022, it aimed to unlock the ‘untapped potential’ of AM for serial manufacturing by addressing its entire workflow. Now with the integration of HP’s Multi Jet Fusion and Metal Jet technologies, it aims to drive that shift to production with greater productivity, efficiency and repeatability. “The end game is that this technology is used for production,” van der Schueren told TCT. “The application of prototyping is a nice one but that's the application that we cover and we can't grow any more in this market. On the other hand, if we can grow into repeat production or mass customization, if the two are possible, then we can grow the market.”
SHOWN:
CMB.TECH 3D printed injection rings
At the inaugural TCT UK User Group last summer, a group of seasoned AM users agreed that data is a sticking point for the proliferation of AM adoption. The idea that we’re not utilizing our data to better inform and connect our processes is being tackled in Materialise’s latest CO-AM addition. The new CO-AM Quality & Process Control (QPC) system is designed to enable users to track, monitor, analyze, and correlate critical part data, from research all the way to production. “It's completely fragmented. The consequence is, what do you do with that data? Very little,” van der Schueren explained of existing AM workflows. “That is what we try to solve with the QPC [...] centralizing the data in a single data source.” Production applications from medical to aerospace can be found across the booth. A sample of the 26,000 biocompatible plastic bioreactors parts ordered by biotech company Sartorius over the last five years show how AM can be price-competitive for
“The end game is that [AM] is used for production.”
small series production. Meanwhile CMB. TECH, a builder of large green marine and industrial applications, worked with Materialise to develop a set of fully 3D printed injection rings used to convert diesel combustion engines to dual fuel hydrogen engines. Each ring weighs just 645g and costs 20% less to manufacture. Elsewhere, van der Schueren is keen to talk about the next generation of its Materialise Build Processors – a conduit between software and hardware – after Nikon SLM Solutions announced it is working with Materialise to develop a ‘high-performative’ Build Processor. With the popularity of its large-format, multi-laser NXG printers – a trend that’s being mirrored across the AM hardware landscape – there is a need for greater control and smarter optimization tools, particularly for mass production of serial parts, to fine tune for cost, speed, and quality. “Software is a constant, but the software will help customers to differentiate,” van der Schueren emphasized. “That is important because if you look to conventional production, all those people are using the same machines and still you see difference in companies that can differentiate themselves. That is because they have their own hidden recipes on how they produce parts.” Van der Schueren believes that customers should be given freedom to ‘put their own salt and pepper’ into those recipes. Plug and print is great for newcomers but as soon as users want to scale, the need to tailor parameters is key. “They have their very specific products, which are able to be printed with, let's say, standard setting,” van der Schueren said. “But where you can make a difference in economies, in speed, in quality, what have you, if you can affect the way that you print the parts, that is where our software stack comes into the game.”
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WORDS: SAM DAVIES
Are digital threads the great enabler in additive manufacturing?
R
epresented by one small word and taking less than a second to utter, it can be hard to believe it’s practically what makes the world go around.
It tells us who we are, shows us what we want, and proves what we need. It is the cause of much confusion, angst, stress. And although that is all true, it can still be hard to really understand. These basic units of meaning are the focus of many a working professional, however. They take time to process, they dominate each and every day, and some are fed up with it. “Data,” Boeing’s VP of Additive Manufacturing Melissa Orme begins. “We spend a lot of time reformatting data. And I think it’s an industry standard that data scientists spend 80% of their time formatting data and 20% doing the work.” This, obviously, is not particularly ideal for manufacturers who want to speed up and scale up, rather than be slowed down by monotonous tasks. But slowed down they often are because the various software tools required across the additive manufacturing (AM) workflow don’t work in sync like one might hope. What manufacturers want is a digital thread of their workflow, from powder genealogy through the design of the part, build of the part, and post-processing of the part, with each tool along the way able to talk to the previous and the next. But what they get is disparate solutions failing to format data upstream and downstream. “What we’re doing today simply isn’t scalable,” Erica Vlahinos, VP of Additive Manufacturing
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at Authentise, says. “Importing/ exporting in and out of each tool – and it seems the list of necessary tools grows every day – is time consuming and leaves insular pockets of data with no ability to sift through it all.” “Companies are not working in parallel, they're working in sequence,” Dominique Galmel, DELMIA Portfolio Director at Dassault Systèmes, adds. “They’re waiting because they know there will be change and change is difficult to manage.” “We need a chain,” Vlahinos continues. “But no one wants to link up. We have information, but without integration we can’t decipher the whole picture.” This frustrates the likes of Boeing because it prevents, or at least makes more difficult, the development of machine learning models that could provide essential information in the production of parts. “Why do we care about machine learning models? It’s so that we can predict what will happen in our additive manufacturing factory,” Orme says. “We can create models that will tell us when to expect something to happen and it will give us the understanding of why it’s going to happen. And it will help us decide what we should do about it.” Boeing’s workflows are slightly different to most in that the aerospace and defense manufacturer has developed its own solutions for most of the AM workflow, but when it comes to steps of the process it doesn’t have an in-house solution for, the frustration is the same as any other AM user. What Boeing
has developed upstream and downstream doesn’t always get along with the externally manufactured solution that fills the gap – like simulation, for example. It means progress is slowed down. And manufacturers don’t like being slowed down. HURDLES Digital threads are important, as Orme puts it, because they build in efficiency, predictability, and potentially scale. JEOL AM Applications Engineer Jon Buckley also adds traceability to that trifecta, telling TCT: “An untrakced change in a CAD file can potentially continue down the next process steps and result in unintended changes to digital files in later manufacturing steps, potentially resulting in non-conformace.” The digital storage of information is at once a great enabler for AM and a great hurdle. The reasons manufacturers are frustrated are plenty. Galmel suggests that many manufacturers are selecting ‘best of breed’ applications for every step of their process, and while they are ‘good at what they do’ individually, “the digital thread is complex because you need to interface all those tools and the execution of these activities is taking a long time.” Allyce Jackman, Senior CFD Engineer at Flow3D, agrees, telling TCT that compromises currently have to be made by AM engineers when selecting software solutions that best address their problem. As you can imagine, manufacturers don’t like compromise either.
SOFTWARE
Roy Sterenthal, VP of Additive Industrial at Oqton, points out that compromise is needed but from original equipment manufacturers rather than the end users their business models rely on. “There’s a lack of standards,” he says. “It starts from the way that hardware manufacturers have interfaces that allow us to capture data.” Sterenthal speaks here from the software providers’ point of view, but Orme says Boeing is on the same page: “To be able to extract the data that we want, some machine manufacturers are really good, and some don’t want you to at all. If that machine supplier says you absolutely cannot see the data, I’m not interested in that machine.” The challenges, then, extend from the disconnect between software solutions to the openness of machine providers, with the capabilities of these tools not escaping constructive criticism either. Jackman notes how ‘a model that can predict part scale distortions and thermal stress cannot [necessarily] predict bead geometry and interlayer fusion due to the computational runtimes involved,’ while Orme has seen some of the best simulation tools on the market fall short when confronted with the most complicated part geometries. SOLUTIONS Oqton, Dassault Systèmes and Flow3D are all too aware that advancements are needed within the software platforms they are bringing to market. Oqton, whose manufacturing execution system software is supplemented by an umbrella that includes tools like the 3DXpert build
preparation platform has demands from users to ‘close the loop’ with monitoring and inspection features for traceability. Dassault Systèmes, whose software solutions caters for part selection, design, engineering, and virtual printing is being encouraged to place a greater focus on print process analysis, while computational flow dynamics firm Flow3D is working to deliver better microstructure prediction capabilities through the analysis of heat transfer, fluid flow, and more. Improvements in each of these areas will help to enhance the individual products, but what has to come next is openness, collaboration, and an understanding that a challenge like this has to be addressed by an entire industry. While the standards Sterenthal alluded to were based more on values and principles than benchmarks and criteria, there is an argument that the latter are needed just as much as the former. Between machine makers, software providers and end users, they all need to speak the same language to get the best out of their AM workflows. The phrase ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ may be cliché, but when it comes to digital threads in AM it might just be true.
significantly benefit those working with new materials or new applications who need to go through a qualification and process design stage,” offers Jackman. “This becomes important for mission critical applications such as in aerospace and defense industries where qualification and certification are still largely done manually via experiments.”
“Once you have the digital thread in place, you can fulfil the promise of additive.” “It’s all about the big promise of additive,” Sterenthal finishes. “One of the first things that additive should enable is for you to manufacture when you need it, where you need it. Once you have the digital thread implementation in place – flexibility, reliability, repeatability – then you can fulfil the promise of additive.”
“Either through industry consensus or competitive pressure – whichever comes first – providers must move towards open platforms as a standard,” Vlahinos says. “The success of the digital thread is contingent on that openness. Once established, it will unlock the collaboration and insights necessary to propel the AM industry forward." “A digital twin that seamlessly links together solutions across scales would
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WORDS: SAM DAVIES
How 3D printing was used to create geometrically complex organ pipes in Finland.
I
n Helsinki, Finland, the emphatic sound of an organ brings in the new year, with waves of air being pushed through a sprawling entanglement of pipes and wind lines. The complexity of which it is clear has been enabled by 3D printing technology. Those pipes and lines collectively measure up to 260 metres and boast 124 sound registers divided among several different sets of pipes. The largest in Finland and Scandinavia, they came to pass after a two-year project which brought together UPM Biocomposites, a Spanish 3D printing service bureau and Austrian organ builder Rieger Orgelbau. Now housed in Helsinki’s Music Centre, the organ was debuted on January 1st, 2024 during an Olivier Latry concert. Before the pipes were transported and assembled in Helsinki Musical Centre, they were 3D printed using a Large Scale Additive Manufacturing extrusion process and UPM’s Formi 3D biocomposite material. The Formi material was selected because of its use of cellulose fibres which, at once, delivered dimensional stability in the printing process, high layer to layer adhesion, and acoustic dampening characteristics.
“It is hard to realize such a design with any other process.”
performance,” Ralf Ponicki, Director of UPM’s Formi 3D business, told TCT. “Next to good printability, solid mechanical performance, the matte and silky appearance of this material, we have these additional acoustic performances when it comes to dampening. That is setting this material apart from standard fossil unfilled materials.” The UPM Formi material not only provided a boost to the mechanics of the Rieger organ pipes but also to the aesthetics. While true that the complex geometries of the pipes would not have been possible with any other manufacturing process, the UPM Formi’s capacity to facilitate overhangs of 70 degrees meant those working on the development of the pipes were handed a huge design freedom. “It is hard to realize such a design with any other process than 3D printing,” Ponicki said. “However, you need a material that allows you to realize this complex geometry. If you move from a straight cylinder to a more complex 3D structure where the cylinder is moving to the right, to the left, you create overhangs. Then, you need a material that has very strong adhesion layer to layer but still provides this solidity, so the pipe is not collapsing.”
“Cellulose fibres are, of course, wood-based and they have very good acoustic dampening
SHOWN:
Photo by Helsinkin Music Centre Foundation/ Sakari Röyskö
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Oli Johnson speaks to Cora Leibig of Chromatic 3D Materials, and fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht about their recent collaboration.
A
dress that, literally, lights up the room. Dutch Hi-Tech Fashion Designer Anouk Wipprecht collaborated with Chromatic 3D Materials in 2023 to create a unique dress that was crafted through the 3D printing of elastomers onto a fabric. On display at Formnext, the dress received plenty of attention on the show floor. 75 flexible LED domes were 3D printed onto the fabric of the dress, without the need for adhesive or stitching. The motionactivated design is believed to be among the first garments in the world to directly embed electronics within 3D printed elastomers. Chromatic says the capability could also be used to create innovative running apparel, bags, footwear, and other products including automotive and aerospace interiors, outdoor recreational equipment and PPE. Chromatic 3D Materials Founder and CEO Cora Leibig told TCT: “The idea came about because we wanted to demonstrate what our technology could do with textiles. So we reached out to Anouk to see what she could come up with, and this is the fabulous design she put together. She wanted to take advantage of the fact that we could print directly on a textile. Each of the dots is an elastomer, so it can move with the dress, its washable with the dress, and it can seal the electronics that are inside.” Wipprecht added: “I first used 3D printing in 2005, and I’ve seen a lot of fellow creators use normal desktop 3D printers to do things with the PLA and fabrics, and that’s cool, but I’ve never seen it from an industrial side and that’s what got me excited when they showed me their machine and what they were up to.”
“Working with Anouk was just fabulous. She’s so creative.” The dress also demonstrates the flexibility of Chromatic’s materials. ChromaFlow 70 was used, which is a pliable, heat-resistant material that can drape and stretch more than four times its length without breaking. The flexibility makes it suitable for adding soft and seamless structural, functional,
and aesthetic elements that are useful for intimate and leisure apparel, sportswear, swimwear and other garments where comfort, silhouette and durability are crucial. Leibig added: “Working with Anouk was just fabulous, she’s so creative, and she really enjoyed working with the materials. She came up with the design, and then we printed it in our shop, she put it together and we’re really excited about the result. It shows not only what we can do in apparel, but what we can do with our technology in a range of applications that are industrial as well, and maybe a little more mundane." Wipprecht added: “We have a big group of women in 3D printing, females are doing 3D printing and it is getting bigger and bigger. We’re both part of that and that’s also the way that me and Cora met, but it was just really pleasurable to work with a female as well. Especially because she looks at the designs from the materials science background." Wipprecht floated the possibility of working with Chromatic again, but this time incorporating robotics into the design, which has been a staple of her work in the past. She said: “In the next project, I hope to work with them again and integrate robotics in there, because especially when you’re working with motors on the body, there's a lot of back bounce because the body is moving and you're moving. So, if that's hard, it becomes really hard movement. But if you can integrate those motors into something soft and rubbery, they can dampen a little bit of that bounce."
SHOWN:
The dress being modeled
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PRETTY OD Ahead of the AMUG 2024 Conference, Laura Griffiths speaks to Olaf Diegel about DfAM, 3D printing guitars, and the importance of creativity in accelerating industrial applications. TCT: You will be giving a keynote presentation at this year’s AMUG Conference, where the overarching keynote theme will be creative applications of AM. What kind of lessons do you think more industrial sectors might be able to gain from creative applications of AM? OD: I think, as engineers, we're taught to think boring through our education. We're taught to think in a certain way on how we solve problems. We constantly think about ‘can I manufacture it with conventional technologies?’ and that really restricts us, and again, to use a really bad stereotype, designers are the opposite way around, they don't think
“I'm a strong believer in DfAM.”
about whether it's possible or not. They just imagine it and then somehow create it and then leave it to the engineers to figure out, 'how do we make this now?' But you can see how bringing those two worlds together, it broadens how they approach problems, how they solve them. So, I think there is a huge amount to learn between the two. TCT: Design for additive manufacturing will be a key focus. Why is DfAM important? And are we exploiting it enough? OD: Not even close. I think this is one of the big things that's largely missing from the additive manufacturing world. I'm biased because I'm a strong believer in DfAM, but today I'd say still 90% of the companies that come to us to print parts for them, come up with blocks of steel, really boring traditional parts, and then they have a heart attack when we tell them what it's going cost to print the way
A BOVE:
Gaia guitar printed in full-color acrylate on a Mimaki 3DUJ-553
they've designed it. So, it’s a bit of vicious cycle because if they don't design the part right, it becomes too expensive, and because it's too expensive, they say, 'oh additive manufacturing will never work. It won't do the job.' But once they start to design the right way, suddenly everything changes, you can start to make parts that are affordable, that add value to what you're doing. It changes the way they think about additive in a big way.
SHOWN:
4 elements collection depicting Fire, Water, Air and Earth
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TCT: I’ve got to talk to you about the guitars. How did that all start and why get into making 3D printed guitars at all? OD: I've played music my whole life and I grew up playing clarinet and then
DD BELOW:
Olaf Diegel with 3D printed guitar collection
CREATIVE
trumpet, all sorts of instruments and I think it was back in 2010/2011, there was a story in the Economist called ‘Print me a Stradivarius’ where they basically printed it and it sounded like a violin. And from my younger days playing music and then using 3D printing for prototyping, I saw this story and I said, 'wow, that's incredible. Could I make a guitar, not a prototype, an actual playable workable instrument?' I think it was 2011 when I did my first one and I was blown away. It played as good as my other regular guitars. I did a blog and started getting emails from musicians around the world who'd never quite seen anything like that, aesthetically, because with additive you can make these complex geometries that would be impossible to make any other way. So, they said, 'can I buy one?' So, I scratched my head a bit and I sold one. I sold another one. I think right now I've got three of them on the workbench, so that'll be 114, 115 and 116. I wouldn't quite call it production, but it’s enough to keep me busy. TCT: You’re also Professor of Additive Manufacturing at the University of Auckland. The lab at the university is called the Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab. It’s not often we see the two intertwined. How do the two complement each other at the facility? OD: To me, anything that makes you think differently makes you come up with good ideas and innovation.
So, ultimately the goal of the lab is to educate industry and get them to think innovatively about additive manufacturing, so how it can be used and creative ways to add value to their companies, for example. And it's one of those weird areas. The only time I've seen true collaboration between an artist or designer and an engineer and a scientist is [when] you put a 3D printer between them. Before 3D printers, they would use each other, but not collaborate. Again stereotypes, the engineer would use the designer to make their design look pretty, and the designer would use the engineer to make sure the sculpture didn't fall over. But you put a 3D printer between them and suddenly they have a common language and actually really start to collaborate and exchange and influence each other's ideas which you don't normally see. One of the roles of the lab is to bring the two disciplines together and try to get some interaction happening between them. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Listen in full on the Additive Insight podcast. Diegel will present at the AMUG 2024 Conference, which will take place on 10-14th March at the Hilton Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
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EXPERT COLUMN
WHAT TO EXPECT THIS YEAR
F
orecasts are easy to offer but incredibly difficult to make accurately. This is especially true when attempting to predict far into the future. Thoughts on what might occur in the current or following year are more plausible. Recent developments and trends typically signal what is in our near-term future. Even so, their impact is almost never like flipping a switch. Most require many years to unfold and mature to commercialization. Organizations are placing more importance on the carbon-footprint impact of AM and this will become even more evident this year. Many will find that sustainable products are less costly to produce due to the use of less material and improved energy savings during production. The approach becomes even more attractive when considering the energy savings of transportation products, such as aircraft. Design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), such as consolidating many parts into one, will contribute by reducing manufacturing processes, assembly, and inventory. For 15 years, experts have stated that AM for series production in the automotive industry would take off in 4-5 years. It did not occur. Now, we are seeing chassis, suspension, brakes, and other major subsystems being produced for high-end cars from Aston Martin, Ferrari, MercedesAMG, and others. This could be the year when auto companies invest in AM in ways they have not in the past. Divergent Technologies is leading some of this work and paving the way for mainstream (i.e., more affordable) cars and trucks, which will take several more years to develop. Developments in materials will drive new applications. This is especially true as government entities and other organizations qualify them for military and commercial applications. Special metal alloys will create new streams of revenue for their producers and others in the value chain. The architecture and construction industry continues to explore ways to put AM to work. Some examples are interesting, but many are not. Even so, companies are beginning to determine when and where AM produces real value. Until concrete is replaced by better and greener materials,
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WORDS: TERRY WOHLERS
coupled with strong business cases in support of additive construction, much of the value will come from improved aesthetics and architectural creativity. A growing number of companies will consider how they can create and store inventories digitally and then manufacture on-demand. These platforms will help support semi-custom design and spare part manufacturing. Relatively few will succeed in putting it into practice this year due to upfront costs and ROI uncertainty. Companies in aerospace, healthcare, and oil/gas continue to be challenged by the qualification and certification requirements tied to the design and production of parts by AM. Some advanced designs, such as those with internal lattice structures, can make inspection extraordinarily timeconsuming and expensive. This makes it difficult to take full advantage of what AM has to offer. Directed energy deposition (DED) is gaining traction and it will become even more apparent this year. The use of mature subsystems and technology from the robotics and welding industries is a big reason why, making it easier to develop a commercial system. What’s more, organizations have a genuine need for systems that build large parts, especially in metal, and DED is well suited for the task. It is interesting to see new and developing applications of AM. Among them are the 3D printing of medicine, living tissue, fashion designs, and furniture. They show the impressive breadth and promise of AM beyond common industrial applications. None will “move the needle” in 2024, but they are important to watch. They could trigger new ideas that may lead to something big in the future.
Terry Wohlers is head of advisory services and market intelligence at Wohlers Associates, powered by ASTM International. For 37 years, Wohlers Associates has helped organizations around the world take advantage of technologies and strategies that enhance rapid product development and manufacturing. Wohlers Associates is publisher of the Wohlers Report, the undisputed industry-leading report on additive manufacturing and 3D printing worldwide for 28 consecutive years. Visit: www.astm.org
“Developments in materials will drive new applications.”
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