Technology Forward

Signs of maturity

In year’s past, the big news of additive manufacturing (AM) usually involved new ways to make parts one layer at a time, or an improvement that made making a part faster. Since the pandemic, the focus of AM has changed a bit. Instead of new technology, the recent news focuses on business developments. It began, for example, when Desktop Metal went with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) to go public.

Then, Stratasys bought Origin, a company that developed a softwarecentric additive manufacturing solution based on digital light processing for production-oriented polymer applications.

Then, Desktop Metal acquired EnvisionTEC and Stratasys added stereolithography to its lineup of 3D printers with the UK-based RP Support Ltd. (RPS)

Next, VELO3D Inc. plans to work with an SPAC to go public and raise capital. This transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of this year.

Carbon3D is pursuing partnerships to expand in Europe.

Materialise acquired the option to buy Link3D Inc., an additive workflow and manufacturing execution systems (MES) company and recently opened a new facility in Germany.

And Nano Dimension Ltd. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire DeepCube Ltd. (“DeepCube”), a leader in Machine Learning/Deep Learning (ML/DL) technology.

According to some reports, $11 billion from Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) has been invested in the 3D printing industry recently. SPACs are a way to go public through mergers rather than Initial Public Offerings (IPOs).

As many industry analysts are claiming, the pandemic has highlighted the usefulness of AM. This technology is viewed now as helping to manage the unexpected. Thus, these SPACs see the potential for strong future growth in AM.

So, are we on the Gartner Hype Cycle slope of enlightenment? Perhaps.

The involvement by SPACs indicates confidence in this technology’s growing costcompetitiveness and advances. There’s a lot of buzz around the potential for AM to facilitate digitization. Many industry watchers see AM as an “interface technology” between digital designs and real products.

But it should be remembered that additive manufacturing is a long-term growth industry. It will take its place as both a prototyping technology and a manufacturing technology. It may not, however, deliver the short-term results many inventors look for. The AM industry has been down that road before when it was overhyped and stocks rose based on that hype. Then, the crash came.

The pandemic, though, has highlighted an arena that AM users have long thought was a key application—the supply chain. Finally, many executives see the value of being able to design anywhere and build those designs anywhere. The nimble supply chain that can also enable local manufacturing is now the new corporate goal for manufacturing.

For now, investor interest is a sign of a maturing industry. Hopefully, this technology will continue along the slope of enlightenment and onto the plateau of productivity. DW

Leslie Langnau llangnau@wtwhmedia.com

On Twitter @ DW_3Dprinting