Wohlers Associates helps organizations take advantage of technologies and strategies that enhance the rapid product development and manufacturing process.
America Makes is the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute that was launched in August 2012. It is the first in a series of institutes in the U.S. and is a part of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) that the White House and many government agencies are supporting. Each institute seeks to expand specific areas of underdeveloped manufacturing technology from private-public partnerships on a national scale. The underlying goal…
Note: The following was excerpted from “Part 4: Industry Growth” in Wohlers Report 2014. Additive manufacturing (AM) systems for metal parts are increasing in popularity worldwide, as shown in the following chart. Wohlers Associates has been tracking this market segment for 14 years, but this is only the second time to publish metal-based AM machine unit sales by year in Wohlers Report 2014. As the chart indicates, 348 of these…
By Tim Caffrey, senior consultant at Wohlers Associates. For many, the word manufacturing conjures images of antiquated factories belching black smoke into our air and chemical-tainted liquids into our waterways. Buildings are cavernous and dangerous, filled with old, energy-guzzling machines. In these images, the workers are unmotivated and unhappy, performing repetitive, menial tasks for countless hours—for entire dead-end careers. These images are inaccurate and out of date. Modern manufacturing is…
The National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, also referred to as NAMII, has been rebranded as America Makes. The decision was announced earlier this week during three days of meetings and related events in Youngstown, Ohio—the headquarters of the institute. The new name was a surprise to most of the institute members and affiliates. It came with some mixed reactions, although many of those that associate consultant Tim Caffrey and I…
GE Global Research sponsored a web broadcast yesterday titled The Future of Additive Manufacturing. The company used Google+ Hangout to provide audio and video of the four panelists and moderator to about 2,000 attendees. It was GE’s first “hangout,” and mine too. The event took some advance preparation and setup, but GE pulled it off beautifully. Click here to see the program in its entirety. The broadcast covered many interesting…
I had an interesting conversation last week with three guys from Made In Space. CEO Aaron Kemmer, CTO Jason Dunn, Mike Chen, and 17 others have come together to put a 3D printer on the International Space Station. The group has completed an impressive 400 zero gravity parabolic “cycles” (known to some as the Vomit Comet) totaling more than two hours of 3D printing research in microgravity. Members of the…
This new market study was published earlier this week, marking the 18th consecutive year of its publication. The report focuses on new 3D printing and additive manufacturing (terms we use interchangeably) applications, developments, and trends worldwide. The report was produced with help from 70 co-authors in 21 countries, as well as 74 service providers and 31 system manufacturers from around the world. Principal co-author and associate consultant Tim Caffrey and…
One of the more unusual and attention-grabbing applications for additive manufacturing is the 3D printing of food. A team at Cornell University has been pioneering “edible additive manufacturing” in collaboration with the French Culinary Institute since 2009. Food items, ranging from chocolate, cheese, and hummus, to turkey and scallops, have been pureed and successfully printed into 3D shapes on the syringe-based Fab@Home 3D printer. Essential Dynamics introduced the Imagine 3D…
I have been lucky to receive many parts and products made by additive manufacturing over the past 25 years. The first was a full scale automotive distributor cap made by stereolithography. SL photopolymers in the 1980s were particularly fragile and I managed to crack the part sometime after receiving it, but it is otherwise intact and in our office. I may now have sufficient number of AM parts to create…
ASTM unites with the Wohlers brand to build on its market influence and access to top advanced manufacturing industry decision-makers worldwide.
Under the leadership of the R&D team, the AM CoE partners plan and conduct coordinated R&D projects, prioritized annually and targeted to expedite...
Provide a comprehensive program that educates and trains the additive manufacturing workforce at all levels, while continually incorporating new advances...
