Additive manufacturing and 3D printing in manufacturing
A quick reminder of what additive manufacturing and 3D printing are before looking at evolutions and challenges. Additive manufacturing, often interchangeably used with the more popular term 3D printing, refers to a range of manufacturing technologies that use additive processes to construct physical objects by adding minuscule layers.
Additive manufacturing offers many benefits in comparison with subtractive manufacturing, which is seen as the opposite of it, and, as the name indicates, uses techniques and tools to remove pieces of material to get the final physical object.
An additive manufacturing definition from NIST: ‘Additive manufacturing fabricates parts by building them up layer-by-layer, as opposed to cutting material away or molding it’.
Physical objects are 3D objects such as parts or products which can take many shapes for several purposes across multiple potential applications. Additive manufacturing can also be viewed as a way to turn a digital model into a physical one since it starts as a (3D) software design. You see the multiple benefits in working this way, especially for parts and products that are hard to construct.
Given its inherent capabilities and benefits, additive manufacturing – or 3D printing if you prefer – is often touted as a revolution across industries and, of course, in smart manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is also typically mentioned as one of the main Industry technologies that have an important place in smart factories.
Additive manufacturing and 3D printing are not the same, even if both terms are used interchangeably. There are still debates on when to use one of both terms. Which term you hear will also depend on whom you talk with. Oh, and there’s also 4D printing with time being the fourth dimension. In manufacturing, leading use cases for 3D printing are prototypes, aftermarket parts, and parts for new products.
Perceived benefits of additive manufacturing in smart factories
Given the fact that AM is such a broad field of applications and methods, it isn’t really correct to talk about the state of additive manufacturing and 3D printing in the manufacturing industry in general. Some areas, such as on-demand additive manufacturing, metal 3D printing and specific use cases as just mentioned are more important, for instance.
Still, here is one source that gives an idea of additive manufacturing and 3D printing in the manufacturing industry. In its ‘Smart factories scale’ report, the Capgemini Research Institute found that the overall adoption of several technologies so far has been low. The report, based on a survey of 1,000 manufacturers, conducted in the Spring of 2019, found that, on average, 23 percent of production facilities are using additive manufacturing.
While that’s lower than other technology solutions, that is actually pretty high when looking at some of those. Industrial IoT systems, for instance, are deployed by 32 percent of the production lines on average and analytics and AI by 31 percent.
However, in a chart that shows the relative positioning of deployed technologies versus their perceived benefits, additive manufacturing isn’t positioned all too well. The chart uses two axes: the share of facilities leveraging the technologies and the perception executives have with regards to their potential benefit.
On the level of perceived benefits by decision makers in manufacturing, additive manufacturing only scores better than plant digital twins and automated guided vehicles.
While, again, these are obviously averages and not all facilities might have the same case for additive manufacturing, this doesn’t look all too promising for additive manufacturing in the shorter term. It could mean that, despite the fact that AM is moving more into factories and production lines, the slower than expected progress with regards to the ‘technology’ as we’ve seen in previous years might still last a bit; at least in some verticals, the context of smart factories and some regions as in the US the AM industry seems to be doing well. All, of course, also depends on the specific vertical. As you can read in our example below, the automotive industry is one where additive manufacturing is increasingly used on top of some others mentioned before.
It’s also not that the benefits aren’t there or that there isn’t room for digital transformation by leveraging additive manufacturing and – in a broader scope of applications – 3D printing. However, the priorities seem to be elsewhere for now, certainly for the executives surveyed by Capgemini. Finally, it should also be noted that, per various surveys, there seems to be a high willingness among small and medium businesses, certainly in some European countries, to embrace additive manufacturing with cost-efficiency as one of the drivers.
3D printing spending and additive manufacturing industry data
Per IDC, benefits of 3D printing in manufacturing that drive the market include rapid increases in production speeds. In combination with advances in printing materials, this enables a broader number of manufacturing applications with the benefits of customized and cost-effective printing, of course remaining key.
Discrete manufacturing accounts for over half of all 3D printing spending during the forecast period (hardware, software, services and materials), followed by healthcare providers. Next comes education, followed by professional services and consumers .
Example of 3D printing in manufacturing in practice
Cars and other vehicles consist of multiple parts. So, it’s probably not a surprise that the automotive industry is increasingly leveraging additive manufacturing.
One example is the BMW Group that started using additive manufacturing in 2010, initially for the production of smaller series of components. However, end of 2018, the company celebrated its one-millionth 3D-printed component, the second one for its BMW i8 Roadster. In only one year, the company increased the output of 3D-printed components by over 40 percent.
The 3D-printed part is used in series production and that’s increasingly where the company will leverage additive manufacturing. Moreover, in this industry where technology is a key differentiator from a consumer and brand perspective, 3D printing techniques have also been tested for personalization purposes. They will increasingly be used in that regard as well.
Additive manufacturing definitions and types
This is more or less the same as the ASTM F2792 Standards, which defined additive manufacturing as ‘a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies’.
Vat Photopolymerization
A vat of liquid photopolymer resin is cured through selective exposure to light which then initiates polymerization and converts the exposed areas to a solid part.
Powder Bed Fusion
Powdered materials are selectively consolidated by melting it together using a heat source such as a laser or electron beam. The powder surrounding the consolidated part acts as a support material for overhanging features.
Binder Jetting
Liquid bonding agents are selectively applied onto thin layers of powdered material to build up parts layer by layer. The binders include organic and inorganic materials. Metal or ceramic powdered parts are typically fired in a furnace after they are printed.
Material Jetting
Droplets of material are deposited layer by layer to make parts. Common varieties include jetting a photocurable resin and curing it with UV light, as well as jetting thermally molten materials that then solidify in ambient temperatures.
Sheet Lamination
Sheets of material are stacked and laminated together to form an object. The lamination method can be adhesives or chemicals, ultrasonic welding, or brazing. Unneeded regions are cut out layer by layer and removed after the object is built.
Material Extrusion
Material is extruded through a nozzle or orifice in tracks or beads, which are then combined into multi-layer models. Common varieties include heated thermoplastic extrusion and syringe dispensing.
Directed Energy Deposition (DED)
Powder or wire is fed into a melt pool which has been generated on the surface of the part where it adheres to the underlying part or layers by using an energy source such as a laser or electron beam.This is essentially a form of automated build-up welding.
Hybrid AM
Laser metal deposition (a form of DED) is combined with CNC machining, which allows additive manufacturing and ‘subtractive’ machining to be performed in a single machine so that parts can utilize the strengths of both processes.
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