Technologies, Potential, and Implications of Additive Manufacturing

* Report : Could 3D Printing Change the World? Technologies, Potential, and Implications of Additive Manufacturing. By Thomas Campbell, Christopher Williams, et al. Strategic foresight INITIATIVE. October 2011.

URL = http://www.acus.org/files/publication_pdfs/403/101711_ACUS_3DPrinting.PDF

Description

"AM builds products layer-bylayer— additively—rather than by subtracting material from a larger piece of material like cutting out a landing gear from a block of titanium—that is, “subtractive” manufacturing. This seemingly small distinction—adding rather than subtracting—means everything.

• Assembly lines and supply chains can be reduced or eliminated for many products. The final product—or large pieces of a final product like a car—can be produced by AM in one process unlike conventional manufacturing in which hundreds or thousands of parts are assembled. And those parts are often shipped from dozens of factories from around the world—factories which may have in turn assembled their parts from parts supplied by other factories.

• Designs, not products, would move around the world as digital files to be printed anywhere by any printer that can meet the design parameters. The Internet first eliminated distance as a factor in moving information and now AM eliminates it for the material world. Just as a written document can be emailed as a PDF and printed in 2D, an “STL” design file can be sent instantly to the other side of the planet via the Internet and printed in 3D.

• Products could be printed on demand without the need to build-up inventories of new products and spare parts.

• A given manufacturing facility would be capable of printing a huge range of types of products without retooling—and each printing could be customized without additional cost.

• Production and distribution of material products could begin to be de-globalized as production is brought closer to the consumer.

• Manufacturing could be pulled away from “manufacturing platforms” like China back to the countries where the products are consumed, reducing global economic imbalances as export countries’ surpluses are reduced and importing countries’ reliance on imports shrink.

• The carbon footprint of manufacturing and transport as well as overall energy use in manufacturing could be reduced substantially and thus global “resource productivity” greatly enhanced and carbon emissions reduced.

• Reduced need for labor in manufacturing could be politically destabilizing in some economies while others, especially aging societies, might benefit from the ability to produce more goods with fewer people while reducing reliance on imports.

• The United States, the current leader in AM technology, could experience a renaissance in innovation, design, IP exports, and manufacturing, enhancing its relative economic strength and geopolitical influence."