FACTORY OF THE FUTURE
working to combat them through research and innovation .
“ Our substantial investments in R & D for next-generation solutions are focused on not only removing geometric and alloy limitations but also continuing to increase productivity to reduce production costs at an aggressive pace ,” Hamid explains .
“ Nikon is also aggressively developing AM solutions – not only focused on new build applications , but also on leveraging AM for a variety of precision repair applications as well .
“ There are tremendous capabilities for reducing lead time and waste using AM repair instead of part or manufacturing mould replacement .”
Another challenge with scaling additive manufacturing is a lack of standardisation across printers and materials . The specialised software , hardware and processes used in additive manufacturing tend to differ from site to company . Aligning all this to scale is therefore a complex and costly process , limiting scalability .
Hamid notes this industry fragmentation , explaining how many believe it needs wider consolidation . In order to achieve this , he recommends manufacturers look towards another industry that experienced rapid consolidation : the semiconductor industry .
“ AM equipment is a dual-purpose technology and can be used globally beyond civilian applications , so strategies similar to those used for other dualpurpose technologies need to be applied here ,” he says .
“ DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTING IS GROWING FAST , AND DESIGNERS ARE EAGER TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TECHNOLOGY TO REPRODUCE RICH GRAPHICS ”
MIKE SCRUTTON , DIRECTOR OF PRINT TECHNOLOGY AND STRATEGY , ADOBE
“ Accelerating adoption will require initiatives , approaches and scaling strategies similar to what the semiconductor industry has experienced , particularly in the last few years .
“ These strategies are a key reason that semiconductors are not only ubiquitous but are also able to be manufactured at scale by several companies around the world and the majority of the time , are able to satisfy demand for ever-increasing applications , including extremely strategic ones .”
84 December 2024