3D printing is rapidly reaching industrial commercialisation in numerous sectors; IDTechEx forecast that the total market will be worth $22bn by 2028. One of the key features is the design freedom this technology enables where, alongside other functional advantages, a major opportunity is in lightweighting.
Lightweighting is significant in numerous sectors, but obviously one of the main industries with a persisting demand is transportation. Weight reduction can translate to reduced CO2 emissions for internal combustion engines or increased range and reduced upstream costs for new energy vehicles.
A new 3D Printing commercial insight forum is being hosted at the Autodesk facilities in Boston, USA, May 8-9 2019. This event provides expert led sessions giving technical analysis, commercial understanding and market outlooks across key topic areas. Each session will be conducted by an IDTechEx analyst and include a high-profile industrial speaker to give their key findings and opinions.
A session is dedicated to progressions and commercial significance of lightweight designs using 3D Printing. As a leading automotive OEM, Toyota hold a commanding oversight of this industry. As part of this session, their central R&D labs will give a presentation on their progressions in utilising 3D printing and topology optimisation for lightweight designs.
3D Printing for automotive lightweightings: Divergent 3D (Top left, Image Weiss/New Atlas), EDAG Engineering (Top right), Toyota (bottom)
A key consideration in lightweighting is the choice of material be it polymeric, metallic, ceramic, or alternatively a composite or multi-material hybrid configuration. A dedicated session provides an overview of the different materials explored by 3D Printing and these will be assessed and benchmarked for their opportunities in lightweight designs.
The forums will be accompanied by a tour of the facilities and table top exhibition. Other industrial speakers already announced include BigRep, Rize, and Cellink. For more information on this forum visit www.idtechex.com/forum-boston/show.
