Third, leaders must consider the strategic implications as whole commercial ecosystems begin to form around the new realities of 3-D printing. At first these platforms will enable design-to-print activities and design sharing and fast downloading. Soon they will orchestrate printer operations, quality control, real-time optimization of printer networks, and capacity exchanges, among other needed functions.
The most successful platform providers will prosper mightily by establishing standards and providing the settings in which a complex ecosystem can coordinate responses to market demands.
But every company will be affected by the rise of these platforms. There will be much jockeying among incumbents and upstarts to capture shares of the enormous value this new technology will create. These questions add up to a substantial amount of strategic thinking, and still another remains: How fast will all this happen?
Their answers will differ, but for all of them it seems safe to say that the time for strategic thinking is now. Traditional injection-molding presses, for example, can spit out thousands of widgets an hour. By contrast, people who have watched 3-D printers in action in the hobbyist market often find the layer-by-layer accretion of objects comically slow. But recent advances in the technology are changing that dramatically in industrial settings.
Some may forget why standard manufacturing occurs with such impressive speed. Those widgets pour out quickly because heavy investments have been made up front to establish the complex array of machine tools and equipment required to produce them.
The first unit is extremely expensive to make, but as identical units follow, their marginal cost plummets. However, it avoids the downside of standard manufacturing—a lack of flexibility. Because each unit is built independently, it can easily be modified to suit unique needs or, more broadly, to accommodate improvements or changing fashion.
And setting up the production system in the first place is much simpler, because it involves far fewer stages. But additive manufacturing increasingly makes sense even at higher scale.
A big part of the additive advantage is that pieces that used to be molded separately and then assembled can now be produced as one piece in a single run. A simple example is sunglasses: The 3-D process allows the porosity and mixture of plastics to vary in different areas of the frame.
The earpieces come out soft and flexible, while the rims holding the lenses are hard. No assembly required. Printing parts and products also allows them to be designed with more-complex architectures, such as honeycombing within steel panels or geometries previously too fine to mill.
Complex mechanical parts—an encased set of gears, for example—can be made without assembly. Additive methods can be used to combine parts and generate far more interior detailing. It expects to churn out more than 45, of the same design a year, so one might assume that conventional manufacturing methods would be more suitable.
But printing technology allows a nozzle that used to be assembled from 20 separately cast parts to be fabricated in one piece.
Additive manufacturing can also use multiple printer jets to lay down different materials simultaneously. Thus Optomec and other companies are developing conductive materials and methods of printing microbatteries and electronic circuits directly into or onto the surfaces of consumer electronic devices.
The enormous appeal of limiting assembly work is pushing additive manufacturing equipment to grow ever larger. At the current extreme, the U. Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, Cincinnati Tool Steel, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are partnering to develop a capability for printing most of the endo- and exoskeletons of jet fighters, including the body, wings, internal structural panels, embedded wiring and antennas, and soon the central load-bearing structure.
So-called big area additive manufacturing makes such large-object fabrication possible by using a huge gantry with computerized controls to move the printers into position. When this process has been certified for use, the only assembly required will be the installation of plug-and-play electronics modules for navigation, communications, weaponry, and electronic countermeasure systems in bays created during the printing process.
In Iraq and Afghanistan the U. The clear implication is that managers in companies of all kinds should be working to anticipate how their businesses will adapt on the three strategic levels mentioned above.
Product strategy is the answer to that most basic question in business, What will we sell? Companies will need to imagine how their customers could be better served in an era of additive manufacturing. What designs and features will now be possible that were not before? What aspects can be improved because restrictions or delivery delays have been eliminated?
For example, in the aerospace and automotive industries, 3-D printing will most often be used in the pursuit of performance gains. Previously, the fuel efficiency of jet fighters and vehicles could be enhanced by reducing their weight, but this frequently made them less structurally sound.
The new technology allows manufacturers to hollow out a part to make it lighter and more fuel-efficient and incorporate internal structures that provide greater tensile strength, durability, and resistance to impact. And new materials that have greater heat and chemical resistance can be used in various spots in a product, as needed. Proto Labs launched its industrial-grade 3D printing services in ; since then, it has become a leader in assisting developers, designers and engineers in moving from prototyping to low-volume production.
Founded in , the company has eight manufacturing locations on three continents, with its global headquarters situated in Minnesota. The company calls itself the fastest digital manufacturer of prototypes the world over. In , Proto Labs announced it is able to provide the aerospace industry with the ability to 3D print cobalt chrome materials using direct metal laser sintering.
Nano Dimension is focused on 3D electronics printing and nanotechnology-based ink products. Its flagship products include the DragonFly 3D printer, which can print high-resolution, multilayer circuit boards in a few hours, compared to weeks or months for others. Stratasys has been in the 3D printing business since , and operates primarily in the healthcare, aerospace, automotive and education markets.
At a global scale, the company holds over granted or pending additive manufacturing patents. These create prototypes and manufactured goods directly from 3D computer-aided design files and other 3D content. Materialise has been providing software solutions and 3D printing services for over 25 years. It is a Belgium-based company that prides itself on focusing on software and services in the 3D printing industry.
The company has a portfolio of over 95 patents and more pending. Recently, Materialise introduced a 3D printing service that uses up to percent reused powder. Top 3D printing company Organovo uses 3D bioprinting technology to create 3D functional human tissues for medical research and surgical and therapeutic applications.
These 3D-printed tissues can be implanted or delivered into the human body. The company is also active in researching specific tissues for therapeutic use in direct surgical applications. Voxeljet is a manufacturer of 3D printing systems for industrial applications. Among others, the company services industries such as automotive, reverse engineering, aerospace, pumps and heavy industry, architecture, art, design and film and museums.
In , the company unveiled its high-speed sintering, and in it expanded the number of specialty materials it can use for its high-speed sintering line.
Today, the company has more than patents and patent applications, and one of the largest 3D parts production centers in Europe. People are already coming up with futuristic ideas that make use of this amazing technology and gaining a competitive advantage in their field of work in terms of cost, accuracy, customization, details, and precision that could only be provided through 3D printing production techniques. The construction industry can use the technology to come up with all kinds of parts required for building purposes along with the tools needed for construction.
It can act as a game-changer for the automotive industry as it can help produce all kinds of auto parts much cheaper and faster than they are produced now.
By far, the most important and impactful application of the 3D printing technique is in the healthcare industry which has already been put to trial in the Covid pandemic era and proven to be extremely successful. Many companies made use of the 3D printing technology to provide the necessary medical equipment to hospitals and the personal protective equipment PPE to doctors. This helped match the supply with the demand and aided healthcare workers immensely.
The technique will remove many barriers to entry that exist in various industries and will be extremely beneficial for startups who have big ideas but are short on financial resources. Startups will no longer have to spend thousands on just coming up with a prototype and by making use of 3D technology they will be able to do it much more cost efficiently.
The 3D printing industry has now become quite saturated and the competition is tough, Following is a list of 15 biggest 3D companies in the world. The rankings and listings have been compiled from 3Dsourced, IG and Forbes, and are based on market capitalization:. Starting our list from an Israeli company with a market capitalization of about 23 million. Nano Dimension is a market leader in 3D products based on nano-technology and has recently been in the limelight for producing an award-winning 3D printer called Dragon Fly Pro.
The printer is expected to change the entire production process in manufacturing industries. Nano Dimension has clients across the globe who belong to different industries. Voxeljet makes it on our list with a market capitalization of The company was initiated as a startup in the Technical University of Munich and has since grown into a huge corporation.
It makes use of chemical 3D printing technique and is known for providing 3D printing solutions to large scale manufacturing industries such as automotive, construction, aerospace etc.
Voxeljet is known for producing and offering affordable 3D printing solutions to its corporate consumers who make use of 3D printing for industrial production. Organovo is an organization based in San Diego, US and was founded in The company specializes in 3D bioprinting and is one of the most valuable companies in bioprinting.
With its focus on bioprinting the company provides its services mostly to the healthcare industry including pharmaceuticals, hospitals, medical institutes, and individual professionals in the field. XJet was founded in and is an Israel based company that makes use of nano-particle jetting technology to produce metal 3D printers. The company is known for coming up with out of the box ideas and inventions by the help of their 3D printing expertise. XJet produced solar panels through 3D printing and is now trying its hands with 3D printing that uses ceramics.
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