Solid progress: the transformative power of 3D printing

As the technologies behind additive layer manufacturing, now becoming better known as 3D printing, develop, so too does the hype behind the process. While its potential to change manufacturing is undoubted, the implications of this are not well understood; and while engineers around the world are excited by the process, they are also finding that it its as likely to change what is made as it is to change the way we make things.

The technique’s ability to use different materials from conventional manufacturing processes, and assemble them layer by layer into an intricate design derived digitally is driving it towards niche products which haven’t existed before — and that, it seems, might be the true strength of the technique.

Although it’s technically feasible to make anything with 3D printing, engineers and designers are finding that that doesn’t mean that it makes it easy. One of the most ambitious 3D printing projects today aims to build something which conventional manufacturing techniques have honed to a high level of efficiency — a car. Making it using 3D printing means dumping that history of manufacturing development and replacing it with something new and untried.