How 3D Printers will change the manufacturing industry

3D Printers have been a big change to the manufacturing industry. Some reasons for this are that retail companies don't need manufactures any more because they can just buy commercial 3D Printers. This has been a big change to the economy. Forecasts project significant growth in the industry over the next five years. As stated by a website On 3D Printing, “The 3D printing industry is expected to change nearly every industry it touches, completely disrupting the traditional manufacturing process. As a result, the projected value of the industry is expected to explode in the near future." In fact the 3D printing technology itself is expected to grow to $5.2 billion by 2020.

3D-printing technology has the potential to make the manufacturing process options infinite and extremely precise. For example, today, manufacturers use what is called the subtractive process. So if you want to make a part out of aluminum, a block is placed into a CAD system and the extra material is cut away to make the part. Given this approximately 60 to 70 percent of the aluminum block ends up as scrap because it is not the right shape or complexity.

On the other hand, printing the material will use the minimum amount of material to make the part and could eliminate the need to melt down metal and also save resources. This could ultimately drive down the total material cost for the manufacturer. For the manufacturing industry it could bring down the cost for materials and the cost to reclaim scrap.

future.” In fact, On 3D Printing projects that the market for 3D printing technology itself is expected to grow to $5.2 billion by 2020