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What ’ s the future for 3D printing asks Chris Tuck on the

Additive Manufacturing ( AM ), more commonly referred to as 3D Printing ( 3DP ), has been part of the manufacturing landscape for over 30 years . It was initially developed as prototyping technology ( referred to as Rapid Prototyping ) to speed up the development of products in a range of sectors , from automotive to consumer goods . The layer-by-layer nature of the technology caught the imagination through the ability to manufacture complex geometries without the need for tooling and reduced manual intervention . In the early 2000 ’ s the technology was first mooted as a potential manufacturing technology for end-use parts by researchers in the UK , EU and North America . Conventionally , these machinery and processes were limited to plastic materials , but the advent of highpower laser and electron beam systems saw advances in the development of metallic , and to a degree , ceramic processes for the direct production of parts .