Building on Additive Successes

Additive manufacturing is a progressive manufacturing technique—a 3D printer slowly and steadily creates an object by putting down layers of material, one on top of the other, until you have a finished part or product. That is true whether you are printing plastic clips, custom toys, metal parts for aerospace applications, or entire buildings printed from extruded concrete. It is also true of the additive manufacturing market itself; over time, it has slowly built upon each success to grow ever larger.

While the industry is definitely getting bigger (some estimates have it tripling over the next few years), the shape of that market is still a little fuzzy. In part, that is because existing successes have been all over the map, with a lot of adoption in some areas (like dentistry and hearing aids), growing interest in others (like end-use part manufacturing in auto and aerospace), and as-yet-unrealized potential in many (like housing).

For engineers and design/engineering software vendors, the critical task moving forward will be figuring out what that means for future product design and development. With 3D printing added to the mix of existing manufacturing techniques, design-for-manufacturing will be more complicated and will need to be sorted out earlier in the process to take full advantage of the benefits of using additive (often in conjunction with injection molding or machining). There is also work to be done in the area of material science, since additive processes can alter the properties of otherwise familiar materials when it comes to strength, porosity, stiffness and other qualities.

In this issue of Digital Engineering, we take a look at some of these considerations in our features on designing for additive, on multimaterial printing considerations, and the use of support-free printing techniques.

In addition, writer Tom Kevan takes a deep dive into the concept of virtual manufacturing­—what it means, what enabling technologies are required, and what the hoped-for benefits might be. Senior Editor Kenneth Wong also revisits the topic of nuclear power, which he examined last summer in the article A Fresh Look at Nuclear Power. In this new feature, you can learn a bit more about the recent, groundbreaking fusion experiment at the National Ignition Facility, and how digital twins are helping researchers move us closer to safer and more sustainable power.

Sustainable power is a hot topic (pardon the pun) here in the Midwest, as late-season snowstorms remind everyone just how high the cost of natural gas has risen this year. Hopefully, by the time you read this, we will all be enjoying the spring thaw as we head home from the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) conference, and prepare for the RAPID event in Chicago in May.