After technology inception 30 years ago, 3D printed parts were typically used at the prototyping stage during manufacturing to give the end user/customer a real world concept of how the part may appear when traditional manufacturing techniques were employed for final part fabrication.
Over the last decade in particular, improvements in Additive Manufactured (AM, also called 3D printing) technologies have resulted in increased potential to directly print in one step functional components.
In order to achieve this in produced parts, a number of important requirements have to be meet such as a high level dimensional accuracy, the availability of an improved range of functional materials, and a supply chain and cost model which is competitive with traditional manufacturing.
In recent years, great strides have been made in these areas which enable a new range of applications to avail of AM technologies. The dimensional, physical and chemical integrity of polymer and metal printed parts have improved greatly allowing a broader range of end applications.
There are now over 100 AM equipment suppliers which is mirrored by the increase in the materials supplied for these machines. Production speeds and quality control also continue to improve.