Leaner, lighter and agile manufacturing with 3D Printing

Global businesses have already been able to effectively incorporate 3D Printing into their workflow to support current manufacturing techniques. This trend will increase rapidly as more and more businesses are impacted by 3D Printing technology. A read on...

- Prof Vijay Kumar Singh

Over the past few years, 3D Printing technology has witnessed tremendous growth. From 7.5% growth in 2020 to 19.5% growth in 2021, technology continues to expand. The market is anticipated to increase because of intense three-dimensional printing research and development as well as rising demand for prototype applications from different industrial verticals, particularly healthcare, automotive, aerospace and military.

The overall 3D Printing market is predicted to grow by 24% to reach $44.5 billion by 2026. The space, medical, automotive and even consumer goods industries have all been influenced by this expansion. As the 3D Printing industry is growing, more businesses have started using this technology for production purposes.

Defining 3D Printing

Previously called rapid prototyping, the technology has evolved over the last three decades and is now popularly known as 3D Printing. It is established as one of the major contenders in the manufacturing sector. 3D Printing is generally referred to as Additive Manufacturing (AM) in industrial applications. AM is a group of technologies that are based on additive shaping principle and thereby build physical three-dimensional (3D) geometries by successive addition of material (as per ASTM ISO/ASTM52900-21).

Different 3D Printing technologies have been developed, each with a specific purpose. As per ASTM Standard F2792, seven categories of 3D Printing technologies are binding jetting, directed energy deposition, material extrusion, material jetting, powder bed fusion, sheet lamination and vat photopolymerisation. All of these work on layer-by-layer manufacturing; however, the principles involved in each technology differ from one another. These 3D Printing technologies are increasingly employed for a wide range of applications.