As of 2018, 7 trends will influence the development and acceptance of 3D printing. These trends are:
–Cost decrease
–Innovation in materials
–Metal 3D printing
–Faster additive manufacturing
–Medical 3D printing and bioprinting
–Improvements in printing quality and accuracy
–3D printing for mass manufacturing
Vendors continue to find ways to deliver more features at lower cost. As adoption of 3D printing grows, the cost of owning a system will continue to decrease.
For the past several years, the ability to 3D print in metals has continued to grow in popularity. Those systems that print metals usually do so through a type of powder-bed fusion process or through a form of deposition. At the 2018 RAPID Show, a new printer that uses cold fusion deposition of copper was unveiled.
Materials is still a key trend in additive manufacturing/3D printing (AM/3DP) with new materials frequently introduced. The challenge will be whether engineers are confident about these new materials as they are not the same as traditional resins and metals. The differences have much to do with the way the materials are processed in AM/3DP. But an advantage is users can develop specific features with these materials. Documentation of features and capabilities will be crucial in materials development.
Increasingly, vendors are delivering systems capable of mass-manufacturing and custom mass manufacturing.
In addition, innovations in AM/3DP are improving build time speeds and accuracies.
