Page 29 - MMI-March-April-2022

In 2019 In 2021

Source: Jabil Inc.

Decision-makers at companies that use Participants of the Survey said that they Participants of the Survey said that they
additive manufacturing say they use the didn't have confidence in the reliability of 3D didn't have confidence in the reliability of
technology for production parts today printed parts 3D printed parts

vey revealed that additive man- beyond these narrow origins Quality
ufacturing is already enabling to include jigs, fixtures and The term ‘additive manufactur- According
unique and better ways for man- tooling, bridge production, and ing’ is elegantly self-descriptive: to Jabil’s
ufacturers to serve their markets. even modest volume parts pro- objects are created (‘printed’) 2021 3D
In the last few years, highly regu- duction. According to Jabil’s through the addition of material, Printing
Trends sur-
lated industries with precise and 2021 3D Printing Trends survey one layer at a time. In contrast vey of over
rigid standards for safety and of over 300 decision-makers, to the additive manufacturing 300 deci-
quality, such as Healthcare, Aero- 62 percent of participants say process, traditional methods are sion-mak-
space, Defense, and Automotive, their company is currently us- focused on eliminating material ers, 62
have positioned themselves ing additive manufacturing for or altering an object’s geometry percent of
enthusiastically among those production parts, up from 27 with subtractive manufacturing. participants
championing the strategic bene- percent in 2017. For manufacturers, 3D print- say their
fits of additive manufacturing. This ultimately represents the ing technology has extraordi- company
Embracing digital technologies outposts of distributed manu- nary utility, producing unique is current-
will help manufacturing com- facturing networks, which are geometric shapes and complex ly using
panies across industries par- today’s reality. Global networks designs with consistent quality additive
manufac-
ticipate in market transforma- of additive manufacturing as- and at a low cost. In fact, additive turing for
tions and not be disrupted by sets, like the Jabil Additive Man- manufacturing can make it eco- production
them. This transition is driven ufacturing Network, offer ca- nomically feasible to manufac- parts, up
both by value metrics and the pabilities to companies that can ture a lot size of few, and in some from 27
growing momentum toward a produce their part or product cases a lot size of one. percent in
digital approach to manufac- closer to delivery. This model Print quality and machine reli- 2017.
turing. As organizations open takes advantage of digital agility ability have increased consider-
themselves to additive manu- because one can upload design ably in recent years. This means
facturing processes, they can files in Chicago, for example, to that 3D printers are creating
become more agile, collabora- be printed at a site in Singapore, better parts with improved
tive, and streamlined. closer to its final destination, dimensional accuracy and sur-
This article will discuss the four thereby gaining significant sup- face finish. When we first asked
key ways additive manufac- ply chain efficiencies. this question in a survey in
turing supplements traditional The additive manufacturing 2019, nearly four in 10 said they
manufacturing: Quality, Speed, industry has witnessed recent didn’t have confidence in the re-
Efficiency, and Creativity. advancements, which are un- liability of the parts produced.
derpinning the case for dis- That number has dropped to 27
Moving from prototype tributed 3D printing manufac- percent of participants in just
to production turing, speeding progress and two years.
Although its roots have tradi- driving more practical use of In addition, material, platform,
tionally been in ideation, de- related technologies. Here are and software solutions are
sign, and prototyping, additive just a few ways 3D printing sup- enabling companies to over-
manufacturing has moved well plements manufacturing. come significant hurdles relat-

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