What Benefits Does Additive Technology Offer to Manufacturing Professionals?

Additive manufacturing technology is growing and reinventing at a rapid pace. Sleeker machines, falling costs and improved efficiency allow for better products. Additionally, these benefits are making contemporary additive manufacturing technology easier to adopt and implement than traditional manufacturing. Even the demand for products manufactured with 3D printing is on the rise.

All in all, the benefits of adopting additive manufacturing technology are many. Let us look at some more benefits of additive technology for manufacturing professionals.

Advantages of Additive Technology to Manufacturing Professionals 

• Low entry cost: While specialised materials and processes in additive manufacturing may cost a bit higher, the entry cost for 3D printing and additive technology is falling rapidly. Most common materials, additive processes and industrial-quality printers are affordable.
• Energy-efficient and material saving: Additive manufacturing involves laying materials one over the other and simply filing off any supports or burrs. Thus, the overall material wastage is low, thereby saving material cost and energy.
• Cheaper prototyping: With additive manufacturing, you can test prototypes and design iterations, 3D print new parts and proof-test new designs with minimal wastage of material, time and money.
• Quicker and cheaper for small batch manufacturing: Additive manufacturing ensures speed and cost-efficiency in the case of small-batch productions which don’t involve large-scale manufacturing and mould-based production. Simply get the material, printers and designs and you are set.
• Allows virtual inventory: Additive technology eliminates the need for warehousing parts and scrapping them when new technology comes in. Simply store the requisite designs virtually and print out the parts when necessary.
• Recreate any traditional or legacy part: Continuing from the above point, additive technology allows you to virtually store the designs for out-of-production or legacy parts. You can print them out if and when required and ensure quality consumer service to loyal and repeat customers.
• Implement newer, stronger materials: Having virtual designs and implementing additive technology allows manufacturers to redesign or recreate a part with efficient design and more robust materials, thereby keeping up with the innovations in base materials in your industry.
• Replace assembly line with a single step printing: Conventional manufacturing involved higher assembly steps and thereby higher costs and more inventory for complex products. With additive manufacturing you can print out the entire product in a single step from start to finish, thereby saving costs and time required.
• Supports AI-based designing: Additive technology can easily incorporate artificial intelligence-based generative designing processes that allow designers/engineers to simply input the necessary specs and material and the programme will help with varied designs that efficiently satisfy the requirements.
• Manufacture strong lattice structures: Traditional manufacturing processes struggle to create lightweight, intricate, and material-saving yet strong lattice structures. Additive technology, with the help of AI-based generative designs, can very easily manufacture robust, cost-effective and lightweight lattice structures.

 Conclusion 

Additive manufacturing technology and 3D printing have proved to be innovative and disruptive technology that is being employed in a wide variety of sectors. It helps manufacturing professionals create unconventional and groundbreaking products while implementing efficiency gains in their manufacturing process.

Phillips Federal is utilising the benefits of additive manufacturing technology to help the various departments and wings of the United States Federal Government for developing a competitive advantage and make groundbreaking innovations possible.