3 ms·
Many think of 3D printing taking over low-cost high-volume production. In that area there are real economic and tech hurdles. But, the niche of 3d printing in t
by digikata 11y ago
Many think of 3D printing taking over low-cost high-volume production. In that area there are real economic and tech hurdles. But, the niche of 3d printing in the aerospace industry (or any low volume, high-cost, high-complexity parts) is akin to Tesla first building the Roadster in a high-margin, high-performance auto market before trying to expand out to more general markets. It's a good sign, and moving from prototyping shapes to some form of printing for actual part use is the most interesting aspect of the maturing of 3d printing.
Another example:
http://www.geaviation.com/company/additive-manufacturing.html http://www.geaviation.com/company/additive-manufacturing.htm...
- redblacktree 11y agoI don't think it's ever going to compete with injection molding on a cost basis. Edit: That is, where injection molding is applicable today. 3D printers do fill a niche for low-volume runs.
- digikata 11y agoIf you stack it up against the just the manufacturing step, I agree completely. But in certain niches, if you compare against the manufacture, transport, inventory, logistics costs etc, then maybe there's a few more areas where 3d printing may be an advantage. If you can actually print structurally usable parts on demand, why dedicate a longer more complex logistics chain. e.g. is there a trade to be made between carrying a network of warehouses full of parts and a printer with a database of those parts right near the consumption point? In all practicality, you can only do this with a very narrow range of parts, even if you could get direct finished looking structural parts out of a 3D printer (which right now, many times you can't exactly ...).