‘Excuse me, my exhaust needs replacing
– not a problem, Sir, I’ll print one for you’
Andrew Chappell 2nd May 2011
Sounds a bit peculiar doesn’t it? However you may have to get used to it, thanks to a new developing manufacturing technology called ‘Additive Manufacturing’ (AM). AM is a new form of what we might describe as three-dimensional printing, whereby a product is progressively built up in layers, the material being deposited from a nozzle or selectively solidifying thin layers of plastics or fine metal. This technology has the potential to completely redesign the face of manufacturing as we know it.
The potential for the technology is almost unfathomable. You create or download a blueprint for a product, customise it to how you want and then press print. Sounds familiar doesn’t it! The machine works its magic and out pops whatever you ordered. It could be applied to almost anything from spare car parts to rulers. Indeed even some budding fashion designers have already trialled the technology in producing the world’s first 3D printed footwear.
This technology, however, has been around for some time. Engineers and designers have used 3D printing for over a decade now but it was more directed towards making prototypes rather than final products. Terry Wohlers, a specialist in the field, predicts that by 2020 50% of products produced by 3D printing will be final products.
Mass production of manufactures may ultimately give way to mass customisation. A producer would no longer have to produce in high volumes to cover their overheads, and the reduced scope for economies of scale may lead to a much stronger sense of personal customization.
Manufacturing as we know it in production facilities could give way to community printers within towns and villages, or possibly even to person 3D printers in one’s own home. This could potentially present a huge issue to governments and society as a whole. Through this logic, it is in the realm of possibility that a large quantity of manufacturing and production facilities could be made completely redundant, a form of de-industrialisation. However these effects will not be solely on the advanced western economies. The industrial power houses of the far east would also be encompassed by additive manufacturing.
However the effects would not be limited to the manufacturing industry alone. Global logistics firms would be under threat; why would a company airfreight a product when they can print one inhouse?
It is not all bad news though. Additive manufacturing lowers the cost and barriers to entry in making things. Instead of requiring capital to build up a manufacturing facility one machine would do. 3D printers would reduce the risk of innovation and entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur could easily print out a few samples, see if there is a market for them and if there is print some more. It could ultimately lead to a whole new level of innovation throughout the global economy. It does require however a need for ideas, the technology alone will not generate ideas, but since when has the human mind ever stopped produced newer, more innovative and better ideas.
Although it is still in an early stage of development and the technology needs definitive performance improvements it wouldn’t be far off to say that a new revolution is coming.