Editor’s Note: As we have for the past several years, we provide a look back at the past year and the year ahead. This time around we have a new twist. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be publishing MCAD industry predictions from prominent contributors representing different segments of the industry. These contributed articles should provide some interesting insights!

Many industry analyst predictions for 2020 are anticipating a wider and growing acceptance of Computer Aided Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Industry 4.0, Digital Twins, 3D Printing, and Cloud Computing; no surprise, as this is an (accelerated) continuation of the last few years. Many of these areas will make an increasing use of cloud computing. Market analyst Hyperion, the former IDC team dealing with high-performance computing, HPC, forecasts a market growth for HPC Cloud from $2 billion in 2019 to over $7 billion in 2023! Another impressive growth has been predicted for Computer Aided Engineering, CAE: According to a new study published by Polaris Market, the global CAE market is anticipated to reach USD 11.86 billion by 2026, up from $6.6 billion in 2018. Interesting, the increasing penetration of smartphones and tablets are among the major factors driving the demand for CAE software.

Read the rest of CAE and Cloud Computing Among the Big Winners in Coming Years

1. We’ll See More Digital Transformation Failures

With at least 60% failing in the new year, digital transformation efforts will continue to worsen. Gartner projects digital transformation initiatives will take large traditional enterprises twice as long and cost twice as much as anticipated in 2020. The vast majority will exceed their allocated budget by investing in tech-driven processes and will have little to show for their efforts. Many established manufacturers in heavy industries misjudge their technical debt—the funds set aside to manage legacy systems and technology stacks. They simply don’t know what is needed to streamline their product ecosystem.

Only with leadership, an adaptive organization and a resilient, modern technology platform architecture will manufacturers be able to overcome these challenges. Aras projects more agile organizations correctly leveraging open platform technologies will be first to market and disrupt the more entrenched market leaders—typically, these will be large manufacturers that are slower to adapt and adverse to change.
Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2020 : ARAS

Editor’s Note: As we have for the past several years, we provide a look back at the past year and the year ahead. This time around we have a new twist. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be publishing MCAD industry predictions from prominent contributors representing different segments of the industry. These contributed articles should provide some interesting insights!

2020 Industry Predictions by Jeff Setzer, Technology Evangelist at GSC

1. 3D Printing shifts farther into true Additive Manufacturing (AM). Instead of concentrating on making prototypes, the technology will continue to progress into direct end-use applications. New materials, such as carbon fiber, steels and specialty metals will drive more tooling and fixtures to be directly created using additive technologies, and production-quality, higher-volume plastic printers will eat into the smaller-run molded part business.
2. Model-Based Definition (MBD) continues to grow. Companies wishing to take advantage of downstream electronic re-use of product manufacturing information (PMI) for machining and quality applications, in addition to enhanced communications on mobile devices, will proceed with their existing or new Enterprise MBD initiatives.
3. Cloud sharing of engineering data will slowly progress, but the vast majority of companies will approach very carefully to ensure their data is safe and secure. Expect the informal use of tools like Dropbox to be replaced with CAD-aware systems backed by the parent companies of the CAD software developers, while the CAD tools themselves remain largely on the desktop to enjoy the raw speed and licensing flexibility of the local installation.

Editor’s Note: As we have for the past several years, we provide a look back at the past year and the year ahead. This time around we have a new twist. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be publishing MCAD industry predictions from prominent contributors representing different segments of the industry. These contributed articles should provide some interesting insights!

Manufacturing Industry Predictions for 2020
As the developers of Mastercam, we are in a rapidly evolving area of manufacturing. Despite this, the main trend remains the same as it has been for quite some time. That is a constant drive to increase productivity through faster and more flexible manufacturing output. This remains a common trend among all shops regardless of industry. As we move into 2020, we will see manufacturing software companies continuing to expand the potential of how productive a shop can be.

In CAM software, we see three main pillars that will continue to evolve in 2020. As you’ll see, they are all connected.

1. Advanced Toolpath Strategies
We see a continued, aggressive expansion of toolpaths in a couple notable directions: material-aware, cutter-specific, or both. This trajectory has already revolutionized NC programming in many ways.

An example of a material-aware toolpath is one in which in-process stock is monitored and the angle of the tool engagement constantly changes to keep a consistent, optimal chip load on the tool regardless of part geometry. This produces safer cuts and dramatically faster machining despite an unorthodox appearance. Another example is tracking the stock throughout a part process—not only within the toolpath but also visually with in-process stock models. This in-process stock can help optimize the toolpaths but also the programmer’s overarching strategy for successful completion of an entire end to end process.

Cutter-specific toolpaths are designed to make the best use of rapid advances in new tool types and shapes. As an example, there are cutters on the market that replicate formerly unachievably large radii using the side of the tool. These tools need specialized precision control to use them safely and to their full benefit. As new tool designs are emerging constantly, toolpaths must evolve to optimize performance.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – MasterCAM

It’s almost 2020, and while many aspects of design, engineering, and manufacturing have certainly evolved in the past couple decades, the area that arguably has had the most radical changes and influence on the overall industry is 3D printing/additive manufacturing.

Editor’s Note: Since the advent of the term “additive manufacturing,” or AM, I’ve preferred it over 3D printing because I think it more accurately describes the process, so will use it throughout this article.

Up front and technology aside, an increasing number of economic analysts are predicting a recession in 2020 or 2021, but not nearly the magnitude of the Great Recession, so many of these analysts believe this next recession is not worth worrying excessively about. Interestingly, and generally, the analysts believe that newer AM equipment companies are better positioned to weather the coming storm because they have less at risk because they are smaller and tend not to go through declined business cycles. Actually, the smaller companies can often create and serve new markets better than much larger and established AM companies.

Image Courtesy of Manufacturing Talk Radio Podcast (mfgtalkradio.com)

According to our favorite AM resource, The Wohlers Report 2019, Wohlers Associates tracked growth and sales of 177 producers of industrial AM systems, which are those priced at $5,000 or more. This is nearly one third more than the 135 system manufacturers reported a year ago. While industrial system manufacturers grew notably, desktop 3D printing systems (those that sell for under $5,000) saw significant decline in annual growth. The overall AM market continues to trend upward, with many new players, hundreds of millions of dollars invested, and innovative new products designed for AM that few envisioned years ago.

The Report also states that the overall materials segment of the industry saw record growth in 2018. Revenue from metals grew an estimated 41.9%, continuing a five-year streak of more than 40% growth each year. Such strong activity among materials suppliers and customers is a telling indicator of the increasing use of AM for production applications.

Read the rest of 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing 2019: Looking Back, Looking Ahead