| Abstract Scope |
Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing technologies gained popularity due to the ability to produce components that were geometrically unrealisable with traditional manufacturing technologies. Over the last 20 years machine, software and material providers have moved ever closer to turnkey systems able to produce optimised geometries in relevant materials. These advances have meant research focus has in some regard moved from the AM process and materials to important elements surrounding component and manufacturing operations, notably, standards, metrology, software integration, reliability and reproducibility, all key to the success of implementation of this technology. The next generation of AM needs build on the excitement of AM and enthuse potential end-users, scientists and engineers to ever more design freedom. This talk will outline how this can be achieved using multi-functional AM. Printing multi-functional materials means the design space becomes ever more complex, needing more control, variety of materials and different software to enable 21st century products. |