Can Additive Manufacturing Help You?

You may be familiar with the use of 3D printing processes to produce rapid prototypes from various materials such as starch and other polymers. Typically the parts produced are not very strong. However 3D printing can be applied to metals, ceramics and polymers to produce parts that are strong enough to be put into service under stress-producing conditions.

This process is known as additive manufacturing. Pratt & Whitney uses the process to produce vanes & blades for compressors in its jet engines. The process is used to produce hip implants. Boeing is even researching the ability to "print out" entire aircraft wings!

Additive manufacturing is still quite a bit more expensive than traditional methods of molding and machining, but could be useful to produce functional prototypes. It also could be useful to produce commercial quantities of parts that would be impossible to mold or very difficult to machine; for instance, parts with internal cavities or that have complex geometry, including interlocked parts that move relative to each other. You may be able to produce a single part using additive manufacturing that would otherwise need to be produced as two or more parts and later assembled. If so, the overall cost differential may be minimal.

Wikipedia has a good overview if you want to learn more about your options.

Meet Me at TCOMM 2012

Hey, I am proud to be a presenter at the Duquesne University Small Business Development Center's 2012 TCOMM seminar. The event is in Pittsburgh from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM September 27, 2012. TCOMM is for technology entrepreneurs and covers many important aspects of technology commercialization. If you can make it, I'd love to meet you! I will be presenting important topics from my new book Mastering Technology Commercialization. To register for TCOMM 2012, please go to .