7 Challenges to a Wider Adoption of Additive Manufacturing in the Industry – Part 1
Blog: Apriso Blog
Additive Manufacturing Usage (2013). Source: Wohlers.
After being used to create prototypes, tools or presentation models, Additive Manufacturing (AM) is now more and more being adopted to manufacture functional parts.
And, indeed, AM has a lot of benefits, whether it be to build custom parts, to replace complex assemblies by a single 3D-printed part or to create organic shapes – lighter but still robust parts that would be near-impossible to manufacture with classical means.
It is also now possible to 3D-print a wide variety of metal parts in aluminum, high-grade steel, titanium as well as nickel and cobalt alloys. So why are additively manufactured parts still rare in the industry, in spite of a few spectacular announcements (such as GE Aviation’s 3D-printed fuel nozzles for the LEAP jet engine)?
Well, there is a long way to go from prototypes to mission-critical industrial parts. Get ready to discover the dark side of Additive Manufacturing and learn how the industry could answer its challenges!
1. Printing a part with the right shape
When printing a metal part using the widespread powder-bed fusion technology, it is necessary to print support structures along with the part itself, otherwise part distortion will occur.
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