By David BASSETTI, founder and CEO, Bassetti Group
Digitalization is key!
David Bassetti
One of the key challenges for the industry in 2024 will continue to be the indispensable digitalization of all production and business processes. The steady advance of Industry 4.0, in which the intelligent interconnectivity of machines, processes and data becomes part of everyday life, will be a pivotal factor for competitiveness. Companies that miss out on this transformation run the real risk of being left behind. At the same time, they must also meet a growing and increasingly complex number of regulatory and environmental requirements. Without investing in new technologies that guarantee complete documentation and traceability, it is almost impossible to comply with all the existing and upcoming e.g. quality requirements or ISO standards. In relation to the technological changeover, there is also the increasingly decisive factor of making know-how and implicit knowledge of high added value usable and accessible, especially for industrial companies that are heavily dependent on skilled workers. Here, from a digital perspective, an openness to restructuring must also be established so that key issues, such as the increasing need to automate processes, can progress and a focus on the company’s core competencies can be retained. The main challenge here is to find a balance between human expertise and automated processes. The integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analyses can and will make a major contribution to this allowing well-founded decisions to be made and realize efficiency gains.
Personally, I am firmly convinced that whether it’s in times of crisis (to save costs and focus on value-adding activities) or economic upswing (to promote innovation and remain competitive) – the digitalization of processes and the management of technical and tacit knowledge will be the key to every industrial company.
In order to meet this persistently growing demand for digital transformation, we at BASSETTI are pursuing a comprehensive growth strategy in the new year, which is paired with major investments in product and tool innovations.
The year 2023 has passed and we are in the New Year. Before we make predictions, it may be helpful to make requests. Let us hope 2024 is a time of peace. Let us remember how much we need each other and how much we can accomplish together. Peace may be difficult; but it is also necessary for the progress we all desire.
Let us remain positive. Thankfully that means getting down to business and engineering. Fortunately, technology, like people, marches on and 2024 should be a banner year.
New Roles and Applications for Polymer Additive Manufacturing (AM),
Polymer AM has always been the little engine that could. From rapid prototyping to hobbyist to complex geometry, it has pioneered growth in AM. Yet it always seems it is in a relay race with AM metal. Thank you polymer, now pass the baton to AM metal for the real breakthroughs. Fortunately, what we have are two heavy stems of a strong and robust tree. Explorations in new fibers, continuous fibers, chopped fibers, inclusions, particulates, resins, multi-materials, curing and fabrication technologies have amplified the capabilities of this venerable science. Improvements in strength, stiffness, performance in elevated temperatures mean polymer AM can take on challenges that seemed impossible ten years ago. Light weighting, selective critical components, and massive scaled fabrication are all within the crosshairs. Polymer AM is ripe for reasserting its place as a major contributor to AM expansion and development. It should be noted that AlphaSTAR’s ICME based GENOA 3DP toolset provides virtual process simulation and build optimization for polymer AM parts. The tool can also assess the durability and damage tolerance of the virtual as build part in response to service loads.
By Alex Hussain, the Co-Founder & CEO of 3DChimera
Alex Hussain
Additive Manufacturing in 2024 – Predicting a Course Through Market Correction to Innovation
For anyone that follows the stock market closely, the Additive Manufacturing Industry has been top of mind…but not for the reasons that the rest of us might have guessed based on the headlines of years past. By the end of 2023, virtually every publicly traded company in the additive manufacturing industry was significantly down, with some of the major players facing difficult decisions on what the future may hold. The root cause of these declines has been varied and unclear, ranging from a general market slowdown in capital equipment purchases to the consequences of overly aggressive market forecasts and overvaluations. In 2024, we predict a major market correction with a consolidation of several large players in the industry, and more than one of the publicly traded companies shutting their doors for good.
While this prediction may seem dire, rest assured, the additive manufacturing industry is not going anywhere. In fact, while growth has slowed in the stock market, many of the smaller players in the industry are thriving. New entrants to the market, with disruptive price points and capabilities, are expanding the promise of additive manufacturing to more companies than ever before. Additive manufacturing tools are no longer only for huge companies with giant budgets. At the end of 2023, 3DChimera saw a huge surge of business from small and medium sized companies looking to add equipment and capabilities, taking advantage of a short window of opportunity where their competitors took pause due to corporate budget freezes. We predict these trends will continue into 2024, and that the smaller businesses adopting additive manufacturing will begin to lead in their respective markets by unleashing the potential of this transformative technology. Additive manufacturing is a perfect tool for our time, allowing companies to leverage technology to accomplish more with less investment and fixed costs than has been required in years past.
By Kerim Genc, Product Manager, Synopsys Simpleware Product Group
Kerim Genc
1. More and more Medical Device companies that have tried to build/deploy their own AI-enabled automation for their current patchwork of patient specific workflows are going to start realizing their inefficiencies and turn to third-party companies that specialize in delivering AI solutions.
Since patient-specific workflows are set to drive the growth of the global 3D printing medical device market , the biggest bottleneck, image segmentation, needs to be addressed at scale. Companies can no longer afford to rely on an army of technicians clicking away at images to manually segment them. Therefore, they will turn to AI solutions to automate the process, and will run into the “build or buy” dilemma. Some can build and deploy internally, but many have been at it for a while and are struggling to realize the promise of a fully automated, single-click image segmentation solution.
It takes more than simply hiring a few AI developers to build robust AI-enabled solutions that are accurate, repeatable, and scalable to their specific workflow, all the while being deployed quickly and able to pass regulatory approval. Many are two to three years into “building it themselves,” and although their internal solutions may be able to automate 60-70% of the cases, the last 30% is proving elusive; they are realizing that, although they are a Medical Device company with sophisticated software capabilities and very talented developers, extracting the full potential value of AI needs a specialized partner. I think we will see an acceleration of companies ceding control of their workflow development in exchange for faster and more robust deployment of AI solutions.
The main manufacturing tech trend for 2024: what happens when you start applying generative AI to physical problems.
For example… what if you could create anything you wanted – at the touch of a button?
It’s a dream of humanity, rendered (and parodied) ad nauseum in science-fiction, from Star Trek to Iron Man to Red Dwarf – that with a single click, a smart computer could create whatever you need: from hot drinks and food, to a super-powerful exoskeleton – and everything in between.
We are, of course, still some distance from any such vision becoming a reality. But recent advances in generative AI mean we aren’t quite as far away as we think.
2023 was another year of change and growth for the additive manufacturing industry — and 2024 promises to be just as exciting. So, what can you expect?
At the end of every year, we at Materialise reflect on our industry and we ask ourselves: what will we see in the year to come? Normally, the answer is the same: “The industry continues to grow.”
This year is a little different. The adoption of 3D printing isn’t just increasing. It’s shifting. We see shifting approaches. Shifting mindsets. Shifting markets. And even shifting limitations.
These are the trends we expect to have the biggest impact in 2024:
3D printing: two distinct paths to adoption We can see two clearly defined — and co-existing — approaches to how companies adopt 3D printing.
The rise of 3D printing’s ‘middle class’: mid-range machines for the mid-range market Traditionally, 3D printing offered two options: low-budget or a top-end machine. This left a large customer segment whose needs weren’t being met — until now.
Shifting mindsets: from ‘Why?’ to ‘How?’ Companies are familiar with the benefits of 3D printing — they no longer ask why they should use it. Now, they’re asking how they can integrate the technology and scale up production.
Mass manufacturing meets 3D printing: will dream become reality? Inspiring innovations in markets such as China, the US, and Germany are beginning to make 3D printing’s costs as desirable as its benefits. Will we see it become a viable mass-manufacturing technology?
These trends are a clear sign of how the industry is maturing and shifting to meet the ever-changing needs of manufacturers. Watch the Materialise 3D Printing Trends for 2024 video to learn more about the four trends we expect to have the biggest impact in the year to come.
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