Additive Manufacturing industrialization driven by medical and aviation

Metal Additive Manufacturing degree of industrialization

Medical and dental lead industrialization efforts

Over 18 different metal AM technologies are currently known and all at different stages of technological and industrial maturity. This section evaluates important characteristics describing the state of the industrial use of metal AM today and in the future.
Processes such as Powder Bed Fusion or Powder Laser Deposition are well-established in multiple industries. PBF for example is used in qualified productions of end use parts for dental industry for over a decade. Other AM technologies have just been introduced into the market or are still in a phase of development and prototype set-up.
To describe the use of metal AM in the industrial production environment, several performance indicators are assessed. This includes machine utilization, type of products and batch sizes. A technological evaluation of the maturity of the 18 different metal AM principle is given in the next chapter of this report.

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What you will find in this report section

Metal system utilization
Metal part quantity per year
Purpose of metal parts
Industrial relevance

Metal system utilization

Industry average of 54 % system utilization

The utilization is calculated from the actual runtime of the machine and the total available hours, i.e. 8,760 hours per year. Typical reasons for unproductive downtime of a machine can be maintenance and service, unavailability of personnel to setup a machine or simply lack of production orders.
Many Additive Manufacturing production machines can run without operator input over multiple days. Therefore, in industries that fully embraced metal Additive Manufacturing as production technology, such as medical, machines can run at 85 % utilization or even higher. Here the production runs can be scheduled down to the minute weeks or months ahead and, thus, enable the full use of the available manufacturing capacity.
In many industries, however, metal AM is still in R&D or production qualification where the full use of available capacity is not the utmost target. Here, the utilization is usually a lot lower than the average.
Currently the average utilization rate over all industrially installed systems is 54 %. The highest utilization is achieved by medical users with 67 %. However, even the utilization in this industry is widely spread. While some R&D focused facilities have utilization rates in the range of 20 % to 40 %, other users claim rates of 80 % and higher.
With a continuous stream of new metal AM technologies into the industrial environment, AMPOWER expects the system utilization rate to stay at the current level for years to come. Only once application development phases across industries and technologies are successfully finished, the utilization will increase significantly.

Metal part quantity per year

Increase of AM product batch sizes

In metal AM technologies such as PBF a build job can include individual parts or multiple copies of the same product. Therefore, a “series” production of lot size one is possible. To facilitate the production planning and handling, however, a typical series production runs only one product. The benefit is furthermore, that the same production data can be used over and over to produce the product without the need for further engineering.
Additive Manufacturing remains a technology for low volume and individual parts. In 2020, 34 % of all printed metal AM products were produced in quantities of 10 or less. Out of these products, 14 % were unique one-time prints.
However, first user applications were reported to have far larger part quantities, some even in series of over 10,000 parts a year. Looking at the total part quantity, one example of large volume production is the fuel nozzle tip from GE AVIATION. Other products produced in high quantities are spine cages and hip cups in the medical industry. While the product family may be produced in the thousands, one family consists of many different product sizes. The geometry is scaled to suit the patient’s body and type of procedure. Thus, the actual part quantity per year may be smaller.
While increasing batch sizes may be an indicator of industrialization, low batch sizes will always play a significant role for most of metal Additive Manufacturing. Highly flexible manufacturing of low volume or individual parts is one of the key advantages of the technology. Industrial Additive Manufacturing environment has the potential to enable mass customization and on demand manufacturing. Whether this is desirable, depends strongly on the application. However, the increasing base of BJT systems will drive further high quantity applications in the future.

Purpose of metal parts

Continuous increase in production of end parts

Metal Additive Manufacturing continuous to push into end part production. From 2018 to 2019, the number of end and spare parts increased from 53 % to 59 %. In 2020, this value jumped to 66 %. Furthermore, the users predict, that in 5 years the combined share will reach 76 %. At the same time, the share of prototypes and R&D parts is expected to drop from 22 % in 2020 to 13 % in 2025.
While the relative share of molds as well as jigs and tools are expected to stay at around 5 % each, the absolute number will grow with the predicted significant increase in total manufactured volume.

Industrial relevance

Metal AM Maturity Index to assess current technology status

To evaluate the different AM technologies AMPOWER has developed a model to characterize the maturity of an Additive Manufacturing technology based on two indices. The Industrialization Maturity Index and the Technology Maturity Index describe and compare the capabilities and adoption rate of each AM technology in the industrial environment. Both indices are crucial factors for evaluating the current status of any AM technology.
The Technology Maturity Index evaluates the process capability, system reliability and availability as well as implemented quality control measures. The Industrialization Index assesses the supply chain, material availability, installed system base, public knowledge and research as well as standardization of each technology. Each category is weighted according to its specific importance. Typically, the technological maturity increases first, and the industrialization follows.
A detailed evaluation of the two indices for each technology is given online on the internet portal of this report. Technologies with AM Maturity Index “Prototype system” are still at an early development stage with in-house systems only or on the verge of first systems at beta-customers. Many of the technologies in this corridor are proprietary AM principles or just recently made public. At a Maturity Index of “First application”, industrial adoption takes place and users introduce the technology in their R&D departments or machines are set up for pre serial production trials at beta-customers. Technologies at a Maturity Index of “Industrial use” are on the verge of full industrialization. Technologies in this area have not yet been widely adopted as a serial manufacturing technology across multiple industries. To reach “Widespread industrial use” the technology must be established in multiple industries as a production technology for functional end parts. Due the industrial focus, AMPOWER does not rate technologies that are still in the proof-of-concept stage.

Data and sources

Published: 26 March 2021

Source: AMPOWER 2021

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Metal Additive Manufacturing degree of industrialization

Medical and dental lead industrialization efforts