What is the role of AM? That is, among manufacturing processes overall, where does additive fit? It is a simple question with significant importance. Right now, we see increasing clarity about the answer to this question reshaping the additive manufacturing landscape.
The role of additive manufacturing might be described as point solutions. It is the transformative process for applications well-suited to additive, and these applications are scattered across different industries. (Image courtesy of EOS.)
Focused, Powerful Wins
Part of the work of the AMT Research Services group is ongoing monitoring and analysis of news developments about additive manufacturing – not just watching for breakthroughs, but also watching trends. Today, we are observing how a single broad trend in additive manufacturing unites and explains much of the recent AM news.
That trend relates to the way AM adoption is not necessarily going wide but narrow and deep, with targeted adoption instead. AM is finding its place within focused production areas, where its impact is seen in both the end part and the process to create it. These niche applications are not necessarily connected, but what they have in common is that additive is able to produce them nearly complete.
We see this theme of additive thriving within focused applications reflected in recent news of both AM’s advances and its retreats.
From Prototyping to Transformative Production
For context, consider the question again: Where does additive fit? Over a decade ago, industry found a new answer. What had been primarily a technology for prototyping and some tooling (two applications that remain important) also became a solution for end-use production – particularly when a part was designed with additive in mind. From this recognition emerged the additive manufacturing technology space as we know it today, comprising 17 distinct 3D printing processes, as defined by AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, capable of providing production solutions across metal, polymer, composite, and ceramic materials.
Yet there is an all-or-nothing sense to many of additive’s production wins: AM succeeds in some applications, while it is a poor fit for many others. When it does succeed, the success tends to be so total that we see a fade-out of the previous version of the product or the way it used to be made.
The acetabular cup for hip surgery perfectly illustrates this. Until recently, in the production workflow for these implants, machining the form was separate from spraying the rough coating that integrates with the patient’s bone. AM eliminates the need for thermal spray due to the 3D printed part’s surface geometry, which is tailored to bone growth.
The results have been transformative. By enabling both easier manufacturing and better design, additive has taken over acetabular cup production to such an extent that this method is no longer considered novel or necessarily promoted as an innovative use case.
At EOS, a laser powder bed fusion AM technology supplier, an employee shares his story of having his hip replaced: When his doctor discussed the procedure with him, the employee informed the unaware doctor that the hip implant had been made via AM – in fact, the EOS employee recognized the implant brand and had been involved in the equipment sale.
So, where does additive manufacturing fit? Here is part of the answer: It fits in your hip. But more than that, we see the emphasis on very focused, high-impact applications like acetabular cups driving various recent developments in AM. In a sense, we have now entered the time of purpose-driven additive manufacturing.
The Retreat of Broad and the Rise of Narrow
Previously, in recognizing additive’s use for production, many companies went to market with broad, production-ready additive manufacturing platforms. The additive space became competitive. Another challenge these providers face is that their approach to marketing additive technology relies on AM users to find, prove, and qualify additive wins – and persuade their customers to adopt them. These challenges, competitiveness, and the need for adopters to develop and champion its uses have presented persistent headwinds for companies selling AM technology.
As a result, some companies are leaving this space or reevaluating their services, including some well-known manufacturing equipment providers. For example, Trumpf, a successful machine tool maker, recently divested its additive manufacturing business in a sale to the DUBAG Group, which it relaunched as a standalone company named Atlix. And Arburg, the successful injection molding machine provider, announced it will withdraw fully from its additive business segment. In these cases, the model of selling industrial machines broadly to a spectrum of manufacturers did not align well with how additive manufacturing is being adopted.
But then, conversely, recent successes demonstrate where additive technologies fit.
Fabric8Labs, for example, offers a highly focused AM platform. The company recently announced significant investor support to expand production capacity using its proprietary 3D printing system for copper to make thermal management components in servers, among other electronics industry applications. As with acetabular cups, Fabric8Labs’ technology improves both performance and processing of these server components. Far from a broadly applicable solution, Fabric8Labs offers a narrow but transformative win for data center hardware.
Another example of a focused win is solid-fuel propulsion system components. These systems rely on parts made from high-temperature materials, such as tungsten-rhenium alloys, that have historically been produced through extremely difficult machining or specialized powder metallurgy processes with extended lead times. But additive offers a flexible, responsive, cost-effective way to work with the difficult metals. Companies like Ursa Major, Materials Resources LLC, and others have announced major backing for the further development of their AM capabilities for solid-fuel propulsion parts. This is support not for the general promise of additive, but for a needed and transformative additive win.
Watching the Point Tally
This “purpose-driven” model is one of the ways we see recent developments, and it is a framework we will continue to evaluate as we view future developments. Additive manufacturing might now be seen as a point solution, flourishing wherever it connects with an application that is so right for it that there is no way back once additive succeeds.
Such applications generally feature some combination of challenging materials, geometric complexity, manufacturing simplification, and cost or time savings – so that additive delivers some set of these advantages all at once.
Most parts and most applications do not offer this kind of opportunity. But in those applications that seem “made for additive,” additive pours in to practically fill the opportunity space. Today’s most successful AM technology providers seem to be those that have found, or are finding, these applications. That is, they are the providers of purpose-driven AM for additive manufacturing’s point solutions.
Fortunately for additive, these point solutions seem to be plentiful. We mentioned a few: acetabular cups, server cooling systems, and solid-fuel rocket parts. Add to this list: spine implants, spacecraft components, firearm suppressors, and dental aligners. The points add up.
In the months to come, and more so in the years to come, we should watch for the advance of additive manufacturing to take this form. Some wins will lead to adjacent wins in the same space. But the larger steps in AM adoption will come point by point as additive finds new, targeted, breakthrough successes.
As the list of wins today suggests, these applications are not necessarily connected. One win does not predict where the next win will be found. Instead, each technology advance in any of the 17 additive processes might offer the final step needed for a new transformative application. Additive will advance in this way as one new application after another comes to light, redefining the possibilities and offering the winning choice from that point forward.
Tracking these wins is part of the ongoing work of AMT’s Research Services team. This spring, AMT will release its Additive Manufacturing Report, one of AMT’s new State of Manufacturing Pillar Reports. Drawing on industry data and market intelligence, the report identifies where additive is delivering meaningful production wins, and is intended to help manufacturers evaluate how additive could be integrated into their workflows. Additional State of Manufacturing Pillar Reports focused on Automation & Robotics, AI & Digitalization, and Manufacturing Outlook will follow later this year.
Fabric8Labs has an additive manufacturing process tailored to copper and well-suited to scale production of precise components for the electronics industry. It offers a transformative solution for creating thermal management hardware for data centers. (Image courtesy of Fabric8Labs.)
To read the rest of the State of Additive Issue of MT Magazine, click here.
