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Additive manufacturing’s history as a rapid prototyping technology is leading manufacturers to rethink the fundamentals of design engineering and digital manufacturing plants of the future.
FREMONT, CA: The manufacturing industry is always looking at innovative ways of working, and recently, additive manufacturing has come to the forefront. Advancements in additive manufacturing, equipment, and materials have resulted in the costs being driven down, making it a more feasible option in manufacturing plants. But, additive manufacturing is not just making an impact at the consumer level; instead, it is slowly changing the way manufacturers think about design, prototyping, and production. Here is more to it.
Additive manufacturing already plays a key role in the manufacturing process, and it is poised to make gains as it gets ripened. Currently, design and rapid prototyping are two of the significant processes that benefit from additive manufacturing. As time passes by, additive manufacturing production capabilities will continue to scale. In every facet of the manufacturing, additive manufacturing can reduce the time and cost required to achieve a viable product. Because additive manufacturing is a more flexible technology, manufacturing design teams can experiment with structures that are stronger or more interesting, and create products with complex geometric shapes that previous methods were incapable of doing.
Additive manufacturing has also greatly reduced the time it takes to create a working prototype of a particular product. Cost-effective, rapid prototype development speeds up product development, reduce costs across manufacturing, and will hasten the time to market. With additive manufacturing, several iterations of various product designs can easily be created to test and gather feedback, allowing manufacturing companies to determine the best model as soon as possible.