WEF predicts mass adoption of 3D printing within 10 years
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published a white paper predicting widespread, mass production of 3D printed industrial parts in the next decade.
Targeting senior industry executives in manufacturing companies, the white paper titled “An Additive Manufacturing Breakthrough: A How-to Guide for Scaling and Overcoming Key Challenges” offers a realistic understanding of what AM can deliver today and why some are achieving that potential while others are not.
Developed in collaboration with ETH Zurich and the Fraunhofer IGCV, IPT, and IAPT institutes, this white paper uncovers “the real story of AM” by directly speaking with manufacturing leaders around the world to define what it describes as a new “return on investment (ROI)-based narrative of the industrialization of AM.” Interviewees included AM experts in renowned companies like Stratasys, HP and EOS, as well as certification firms like DNV-GL, and TÜV SÜD, and adopters ranging from Deutsche Bahn to PrintCity Manchester.
The WEF says that despite being surrounded by the “cycles of hype”, the predictions and forecasts of the potential of additive manufacturing have not become reality. With a focus on making the technology more resilient, flexible and sustainable, the white paper outlines a potential roadmap for mass adoption of AM by suggesting seven overarching themes in a call to action, addressing detailed statements for stakeholders in the AM ecosystem.
“By following the proposed call to action presented in our paper, a major leap in industrializing AM can be jointly developed from within the AM ecosystem,” explained in the WEF’s paper. “With these changes, future business models and many new applications will be feasible in the next five to ten years, leading to a steady growth of the overall market, and offering disruptive potential for some industries.”
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In the series of interviews and case studies conducted for this study and research insights, the organization found the following relevant challenges to AM adoption and implementation.
To overcome the majority of these issues, the researchers have come up with four practical recommendations. The practices suggested for the manufacturers are:
- Break down the AM learning curve by increasing the complexity step by step
- Build AM applications around viable customer needs and business cases
- Collaborate with others and share learnings to progress faster as a whole
- Have an AM strategy and provide support to act as an AM driving force within your organization
Image: WEF
The white paper concludes the research with a call to action for the realization of the suggestions to carry the industrialization of AM. The seven overarching themes in a call to action are:
- Significantly reduce costs along the entire process chain through common investments
- Invest in education, share knowledge and designate “AM-intrapreneurs”
- Merge and push efforts in standardization
- Increase and streamline funding to sustain research for technology readiness levels (TRL) 3–6
- Enforce consequent circular economy and sustainability
- Raise awareness and investment for quality assurance and simplified qualification
- Scale digitization of the process chain
While the paper is upbeat about what companies can do to increase AM adoption, experts point out that today and in the foreseeable future, the production cost remains the single largest challenge to AM adoption.
“This not only refers to machine and material costs but that perceived lack of robustness and quality also have a significant impact on costs. Both factors lead to high quality-assurance costs after the AM process. Complex geometries of AM parts, small lot sizes, and other particularities of AM make it challenging to post-process and automate the production. As a result, post-processing accounts for a significant share of the overall part costs,” reads the white paper.
An overall analysis demonstrates that a joint step towards the industrialization of the AM process chain is required to foster sustained and sustainable growth of the industry.
“Depending on advances within the AM ecosystem, production could shift towards fully integrated industrialization,” concludes the WEF paper. “Most experts do not expect disruptive developments in the near term, but rather foresee a slow and steady development. Consequently, a possible breakthrough for serial production and mass customization within five to 10 years is foreseeable.”
AM at the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum is one of the most respected independent international organizations with worldwide reach. Designed to promote public-private cooperation, it hosts the world’s business leaders in Davos each year, where they discuss the obstacles facing advanced technologies.
Ever since AM was highlighted as one of the WEF’s 10 emerging technologies by the organization’s Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies in 2015, it has been at the forefront of its agenda and other disrupting advanced manufacturing processes. Ahead of the 2022 edition of its Swiss summit, which will run from 22–26 May, the WEF has now offered an updated assessment of the current state of affairs in the 3D printing sector.
The World Economic Forum’s full white paper can be accessed here.
