In the last few years, you may have heard the term ‘additive manufacturing’ cropping up in multiple industries. Additive manufacturing is the process of creating a component by adding material. Traditional manufacturing methods, such as milling and turning, that focus on removing material are known as subtractive manufacturing. There are many tried and true methods of additive manufacturing. For example, Laminated Veneer Lumber, a form of engineered lumber, has been produced by an additive manufacturing process called sheet lamination for years now, and is used in almost every building with a wooden frame today Another method of additive manufacturing that has taken the world by storm in the last decade is called material extrusion, or more commonly, 3D printing. 3D Printing is a massively growing technology that is used in more industries every year. 3D printing is out of this world. Literally. According to Tech Briefs (2023), NASA has multiple plastic 3D printers operating in space, and they are diving into researching how 3D printers, using both metal and plastic materials, can aid their quest for stronger, lighter weight parts.

It’s no secret that, when it comes to prototyping, 3D printing stands head and shoulders above competing manufacturing methods. Coming up with an idea, creating a model of it in your preferred CAD software, and being able to hold it in your hand mere hours later is invaluable when prototyping. Especially when testing assemblies, where fitment and interferences may not be represented well in CAD software. Fixing a problem that may only become apparent upon assembling your design when you have already gone to tooling can be extremely expensive. These costly mistakes can be completely avoided with access to 3D printing. Prototyping using additive manufacturing has been a cost reducing method across multiple industries, such as aerospace the railway sector and the automotive industry just to name a few.

3D printers excel at prototyping, but they’re not a one trick pony. 3D printing can simplify your supply chain by consolidating production. To keep it relevant, I’m going to use an example that we have seen quite a few times now. Let’s say a company, ACME Corp, has a design that requires a coil wound on a custom bobbin. Nothing off the shelf satisfies their design requirements for a bobbin, so it must be custom made. Without additive manufacturing methods like 3D printing, ACME Corp would have to get expensive tooling made, ship it to a plastics factory who then produces their bobbins, then ship the completed bobbins to the company that is performing the coil winding and final assembly. This is okay, but it can be much faster, much cheaper, and much more efficient. If ACME Corp had worked with a coil winder with access to additive manufacturing, it would be as simple as sending the CAD data for the bobbin, or even just some rough dimensions of the bobbin, to the company, who then 3D prints the bobbin, and completes the winding and final assembly. This cuts out multiple links in the supply chain, saving time and money.

Another huge benefit to additive manufacturing is how sustainable it is, producing less waste and greenhouse gases than its subtractive manufacturing counterparts. In our current environment, you want to know that the manufacturing processes used to produce your product are cleaner and not producing excess waste that is just going to end up at landfills harming our precious environment.