3DPrint.com’s sibling firm, the market analysis agency/consultancy Additive Manufacturing (AM) Analysis, has collaborated with authentic tools producer (OEM) Velo3D to create a white paper titled “3D Printing and the Protection Sector: The Future is Now.” The white paper, which outlines the principle causes behind the growing curiosity in 3D printing that protection contractors and militaries have demonstrated in recent times, is freely accessible for obtain right here.
The white paper locations a specific emphasis on the Division of Protection (DoD) and the US protection industrial base (DIB), explaining how US strategic competitors with China has turn into the principle issue figuring out international navy demand for an increasing number of AM functions. Alongside different main concerns, the DoD’s must hyperlink up US manufacturing capabilities with these of US allies and companions has catalyzed an acceleration of R&D and commercialization of enabling applied sciences for provide chain digitalization — with AM chief amongst these.
Because the white paper notes, “Lengthy lead instances for the supply of latest elements are anathema to any group whose success relies upon largely on the fixed movement of manufactured items. Militaries can’t survive with out the continually accessible, unquestioned provide of latest elements. This makes lengthy lead instances a problem of nationwide safety. The US DIB is the vital market to think about — it doesn’t matter what different nations one considers — as US-China competitors is what’s driving and shaping demand. The US is chargeable for about 40 % of navy spending globally, which means that conserving DoD provided won’t ever be one thing that the US can obtain alone.”
As protection functions for AM proceed to mature an increasing number of quickly, there’s a rising significance for each firm/stakeholder within the AM sector — and never simply these instantly concerned within the protection market — to pay shut consideration to what DoD is doing with AM. As each the white paper and the 2023 AM Analysis report, “Additive Manufacturing for Navy and Protection,” clarify, the scope of navy AM exercise is clearly signaling the near-future trajectory for all different main industrial sectors.
As an illustration, the DoD has been on the forefront of the US authorities’s reshoring efforts, a historical past that appeared to hit a significant inflection level in 2023. As AM turns into extra central to manufacturing reshoring initiatives across the globe, it may be anticipated that AM exercise in each sector will extra intently resemble what the DoD is doing with AM.
That’s notably vital to bear in mind, given the necessity of different areas of the general public sector to catch up and keep apace with DoD’s superior manufacturing progress. The Division of Power, Division of Commerce, and different areas of the US authorities and governments internationally will all be taking their results in some substantial extent from the precedents being set by DoD. That’s, even in case you bristle on the concept of AM’s function as a protection expertise, you possibly can nonetheless draw classes from the instance to take the DoD’s mannequin and run with it, to no matter extent attainable in your personal most popular sphere of use-cases.
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