Advanced Manufacturing has probably figured out what it wants to do when it grows up. (Although it didn’t really choose it.)
Defense is likely to take an increasingly large share of the AM conversation. Not replacing Biomedical or Commercial applications, but reducing their relevance and perhaps turning down a bit the buzz around Space.
If History has taught us anything, Defense requirements have a way of accelerating innovation in the technologies and processes they leverage. (For an interesting perspective on this dynamic, read “Beast in the Machine”, by George M Dougherty, PhD).
In the context of Advanced Manufacturing, the next manifestations of this acceleration will be the widespread adoption of AI agents and Machine Learning.
Here at IMTS – International Manufacturing Technology Show, we saw an interesting problem-solution ping-pong:
live on the IMTS Main Stage, Lockheed Martin‘s J Hector Sandoval explained that AM has reached Quality standards that make it suitable for mission-critical applications.
The next step will be to increase throughput while maintaining Quality and, in doing so, further reduce the total cost of ownership of parts.
Then came the answer: an impressive display of AI-enabled manufacturing benefits presented by Ursa Major‘s Thomas Pomorski.
I’d label it: “Machine Learning means Learning Manufacturing”.
But Defense absorbing some of the most advanced Manufacturing Technologies may also be an indicator of a broader economic shift.
Just a few years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine Additive Manufacturing being discussed on the IMTS Main Stage with only one representative from the End-User side — and that End User being a Defense player.
Marie Niehaus-Langer, CEO of EOS, represented the excellence the AM process can offer. She made an interesting point: AM ultimately has to dissolve into the much larger ocean of Manufacturing.
It has to become a good neighbor to the other processes.
That reminded me of Art historian Aby Warburg’s famous Law of the Good Neighbor: the book you really need may not be the one you’re looking for, but the one sitting next to it on the shelf.
Maybe that is where Additive Manufacturing is today.
Not a manufacturing island anymore: just the very interesting neighbor you didn’t know you needed.
Last but not least: hybrid model goes too. See smart kid Jason Jones‘ Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies. CNC and AM inside the same machine. The neighbor who just moved in or ‘a low psychological barrier of entry in the Additive world’.
I hope that young Mechanical and Electronics Engineering students will feel excited to enter the job market in this moment of great acceleration.
#AdditiveManufacturing #AdvancedManufacturing #Defense #AerospaceIndustry