Tech Briefs Magazine - February 2023 - 15

Tech Briefs: The global COVID-19
pandemic hit the additive manufacturing
industry hard but it's on a rebound.
What factors are accelerating the
growth of AM?
Brent Stucker: Since the COVID pandemic,
a key primary driver for AM is the
strain on supply chains. With any crisis,
organizations are forced to adapt to survive.
Over the last two years, we've seen
many companies that are reevaluating
their standard manufacturing practices,
and in doing so, are open to new ways of
overcoming
challenges.
In parallel,
we've seen a more competitive landscape
amongst 3D printing and AM solution
providers. Our industry has matured to a
point that allows us to shift our innovation
focus from just printing platforms
to also focusing on software, materials,
and digital workflows to enable the direct
production of a broader range of
applications. This gives us the opportunity
to offer manufacturers more sophisticated
solutions to address their most
challenging needs.
Avi Reichental: I believe the growth is
accelerated by two key drivers. One, the
COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the fact
that we need to rethink the antiquated
supply chain strategies that rely on minimum
order quantities (typically from locations
far away from point of use) to
drive individual component prices down.
This is both costly and unsustainable. The
impracticality of this approach is especially
made apparent during catastrophic
and unpredictable events like health pandemics
and global socio-economic crises
like a war in Ukraine, for example. This
newfound revelation is what is and will
continue to fuel the notion of producing
goods on-demand, and in the quantities,
you need them, when you need them, as
close to point of sale/use as possible. This
approach reduces supply chain risk,
drives down total costs, and reduces the
overall carbon footprint. Second, I think
the continued technological advancements,
material developments, industry
mergers, and consolidations will continue
to further proliferate the use and adoption
of additive technologies across just
about every industry.
Shai Terem: Supply chain disruption
and geopolitical issues, notably the war
in Ukraine, tariffs with China, and inflation,
are making it more difficult for
manufacturers to get the critical parts
Tech Briefs, February 2023
they need to keep operations running
smoothly. These pain points are pushing
manufacturers to explore new
methods to onshore their supply chains
for resiliency and flexibility. AM with
functional capabilities at the point of
need is a great solution. When it gets
harder to rely on external sources, the
use of AM allows manufacturers to print
parts on site in a matter of hours or
days, instead of the months it might
take to get what they need from across
the world. This strategy is helping manufacturers
bring products to market
faster and with fewer disruptions. 3D
printing with the ability to make mission
critical parts on demand is helping
manufacturers build flexibility and resiliency,
which hasn't been the case for
the past couple of years.
Benny Buller: We experienced some
of our most impressive growth during
the COVID-19 period. However, we were
still in our early years. But I do agree that
we are seeing accelerating growth of the
AM industry and part of it
is due to
COVID-19. The pandemic showed the
world that we have some serious weaknesses
in our supply chains. AM has long
promised supply chain improvement by
providing repeatable outcomes anywhere
you have a machine, but it has
failed to deliver machine-to-machine repeatability
without
qualifying parts
across every printer at regular time intervals.
However, the technology has matured,
and that consistency and repeatability
can now be achieved. I think the
improvements in the technology (like
larger machines, fewer supports, more
alloys, better software, lower cost at
high-volume production, and improved
processes to name a few) are another
major contributor. I do believe that the
best growth is still ahead of us.
Yair Alcobi: With worldwide economics
getting back to pre-pandemic levels
and even higher, many companies will go
back to investment in AM systems after
putting things on hold for a while and
focusing on evaluations and learning.
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3D printing with the ability to make mission critical
parts on demand is helping manufacturers build flexibility
and resiliency, which hasn't been the case for the
past couple of years.
- Shai Terem, Markforged
The disruption to supply chain coupled
with the impact on the environment and
the Dublin climate convention illustrates
that AM is clearly a good way to go to reduce
waste and dependency on shipments
and stock, and to bring production
closer to the consumption. The
strategic supply chain shift of industry
leaders is starting to gain momentum as
companies are putting their money
where their strategy is. These major players
are building alternative, flexible,
on-demand supply chains, based on AM
capacity. Before the pandemic we were
also seeing a lot of development in ceramics,
we think 2023 could be the year
of ceramic AM when the early majority
start to pick up the technology. We are
seeing emerging industries that do now
have traditional supply chains are open
to starting with AM first for both development
and production: EV, drones, solar,
space, automation, robotics.
Tech Briefs: Materials have been driving
the AM industry forward. Which metal
and polymer-based AM technologies
are seeing significant growth? What innovations
are expected in materials?
Brent Stucker: Currently, the highest
growth area appears to be in the space/
aerospace industry. Due to the high value
and low volume of these applications, we
are seeing a higher rate of growth in the
adoption of lightweight metallics (e.g., Titanium
and Aluminum) on high-value
AM machines - many of which can exceed
$1 million per system. While this is
exciting for the industry, I anticipate we'll
see even more innovation in plastic materials
over the next decade. We continue to
see a reliance on petroleum-based polymers,
which is in direct conflict with manufacturers'
desire to adopt sustainable
practices. As a result, I think we will see a
good deal of effort devoted to the development
of more sustainable manufacturing
methods - starting with materials.
Avi Reichental: We have seen significant
growth in resin-based technologies,
more specifically the next-gen stereoli15
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Tech Briefs Magazine - February 2023

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