Page 18 - MMI-March-April-2022

INDUSTRY TIPS

TOWARDS TRANSFORMATION

Where will additive manufacturing go in the next 10 years? Stephanie
Hendrixson and Pete Zelinski offer six ideas in the latest episode of the AM
Radio podcast.

Source: Magic Wand Media

hen stereolithography Six predictions for additive capability, simply because the
W was invented more manufacturing’s next consumers and users of 3D print-
ed items must feel a sense of
than 30 years ago,
would anyone have guessed that 10 years: trust and recognition of these ob-
3D printing technology would ex- Service parts will lead jects. As humans become more
plode, expand, and come to change to a re-engineering of accustomed to generative de-
the way that production parts are the entire product lifecycle. 3D signed and topology optimized
made? Likely not. While some of printing has great potential as a forms, the door will open to in-
the issues around additive manu- source of aftermarket and spare creasingly complex, asymmetric,
facturing (AM) have remained the parts, but only if 3D printable and optimized objects, whether
same, the techniques, materials, files exist for those parts. In the they be aerospace brackets, auto-
and applications have grown ex- future, we will rely less on 3D motive engine components, or
ponentially. And we predict that scanning and reverse engineer- consumer products.
this growth will continue, though ing because those digital files
perhaps in different directions will exist from the beginning, The arrival of a new
than it has thus far. and be created as part of the category of machine
STEPHANIE HENDRIXSON In the most recent edition of the product’s initial development. shop that specializes in metal
Executive Editor AM Radio podcast, I challenged AM parts. Additively manufac-
Additive Manufacturing
co-host and AM Editor-in-Chief Increasingly irregular tured parts are unlike the stock,
Peter Zelinski to come up with and organic designs. blanks or even castings most
some predictions about where There is some extent to which to- machine shops are accustomed
AM is headed over the next day’s designers and engineers to handling. A new class of ma-
10 years. We each shared three hold back on using additive man- chine shops staffed and
ideas, summarized below. ufacturing to its full geometric equipped to fixture, locate, ma-

18 | March-April 2022 Modern Manufacturing India