2019 will likely continue the amazing resurgence of United States and Canadian manufacturing. SolidCAM keeps very close contact with our customers and they report very high new order levels and do not see the trend slowing down any time soon. Orders are coming in from multiple sectors with the predominance coming from Aerospace, Energy, Medical and Consumer Products.

The industrial boom is however not completely without challenges. SolidCAM customers also report that acquiring and retaining skilled labor is now even harder, and there are technical challenges with adopting new technology that enables greater economies of scale. Complex multi-tasking CNC machines are in hot demand, and the learning curve can be an issue. More and more companies like SolidCAM have geared up to assist these companies get up to speed as quickly as possible through products specifically designed to get the most capability from these new wave of high productivity machines, specialized personnel ready to assist and detailed technical training.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions – SolidCAM

In 2018 we saw a few big players start the trend toward 3D printing parts for functional end-use applications, but many smaller organizations found the available solutions limiting and usually too expensive to justify. With the emergence of SLS 3D printers at affordable price points for small and medium size businesses in 2019, we predict that functional end-use parts will finally become commonplace. SLS technology allows for super strong parts made from Nylon and Flexible materials, and virtually limitless geometry constraints due ease of support removal with this technology.  Engineers and designers are finally going to have tools to unleash the potential of 3D printing, taking advantage of generative design and new finishing techniques that make 3D printed parts almost indistinguishable from those manufactured by traditional methods.

From End-to-End Industry Solutions to 5G, Here’s a Look at Simulation for 2019

Industry leaders in 2019 face increasing societal and process challenges as they develop highly complex products and solutions in an extremely competitive and regulated environment. They are looking for partners to help accelerate innovation, manage complexity and increase confidence in their processes. At the same time, they are looking to reduce costs, time to market and risks.

SIMULIA – with its comprehensive simulation portfolio – will work closely with companies this year to offer high value solutions to industry process requirements for virtual testing throughout the product development cycle:

Read the rest of 2019 Prediction for MCADCafe – 3DS Simulia

Technical publications solutions for aerospace and defense, automotive industries continue to maintain the highest safety standards, while also increasing quality. To control accuracy and up-to-date of service documentation the authoring process is being moved tighter into the PLM paradigm. A single PLM environment allows enterprises to further streamline and automate the creation of after-sales materials by automated change impact notification and authoring.

AR will become a driving force in every-day after-sales service due to arisen products with new technologies, which require new technical skills. New wearables are intelligent enough to interpret their user’s intention and y-o-y increasing data processing. A new generation of workforces is tech-savvy and very fast at being able to adapt to new technology. On the other hand, they are not in-depth skilled as opposed to the aging workforce.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – Cortona3D

In the Manufacturing arena, there’s an increasing demand to produce quality parts faster, and at a competitive cost. This is forcing companies to rethink every manufacturing step and take all actions possible to become more efficient. Manufacturers focused on making good parts on the first run now have to increase their focus to fully optimizing their cutting processes. In this context, “fully optimizing” means not only choosing optimal cutting strategies and methods, but also squeezing every bit of performance from cutting tools and the CNC machines used in the process.

As challenging as that sounds, the dichotomy is that this comes at a time when many of our most experienced machinists are approaching retirement and there’s a shortage of upcoming manufacturing talent. As makers of verification and optimization software, CGTech is aware that shops increasingly rely on this type of software to bridge the burgeoning “skills-versus-optimal manufacturing” gap. Our users tell us that optimizing everything they do is key to surviving on the “mean streets” of manufacturing. In today’s age of IoT and accessibility, the most valuable software will also consider tool, machine, and other IoT accessible data to offer much-needed guidance to end users.

From a rapid prototyping/3DP viewpoint 2019 will be a year to focus on full colour, sustainable materials, and “genuine” office friendly solutions.

Though rapid manufacturing is becoming a major focus for manufacturers, also reducing hazardous materials and processes from 3D printing, to make prototypes safely in the office and reducing plastic waste is becoming key buying criteria. Also in other markets, new creative users of 3DP are emerging who highly value full colour and sustainable/eco-friendly materials.

Industry Outlook from IMAGINiT’s Carl Smith

Over the past year, more and more of our clients are asking for a tighter integration between business systems that are used to manage workflows and processes among the varying levels of corporate structure. I expect that this trend will continue into 2019 as companies are pressured into much faster response times to improve time-to-market.

Our clients often utilize Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for managing complex product information, engineering and manufacturing workflows, etc. They also manage the financial side of their business with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Much of the information within each system is overlapping and accuracy is critical to efficient decision making on issues ranging from new BOM items and how procurement will address them – all the way to new product launch initiatives.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – IMAGINiT

Prediction 1 | 3D printers: 

The Markforged Metal X printing system will, by far, have the biggest impact on businesses in 2019. This affordable metal 3D printing is now available to any company ready to embrace additive manufacturing as a cost-saving, time-effective solution. It’s an innovative and disruptive product that has created opportunity for small, medium, and large businesses in almost every vertical market. This year I predict we will see the Markforged Metal X giving companies a real competitive advantage.

Prediction 2 | 3D scanners:

At STAX3D, we are awaiting the shipping of Artec’s Leo scanner in 2019. The Leo is a self-contained, portable scanner that offers better accuracy that we’ve seen with past generations of 3D scanners. It will allow the user to operate without a “tether” – that means no more cords or plugging into a power source. The applications are incredible: architecture, archaeology, entertainment, education and more. Scanning technology is evolving rapidly and innovation will surely show up in 2019. Any company with 3D design capability is a candidate for a scanning system.

Read the rest of MCADCafe Industry Predictions for 2019 – STAX3D