In an era of digitilization, global market pressure, anduncertainty on many fronts, it’s more important than

PRODUCTION SCALE, LOW
COST, SUSTAINABLE
ADDITIVE
MANUFACTURING HAS
ARRIVEDever to leverage innovative technologies. Successful
industrial manufacturers are replacing obsolete

methodologies and adopting additive manfuacturing
for more sustainable, low cost, and consistent highlevel production parts.
By Marianne D’Aquila
Director of Research,
ARC Advisory GroupARC White Paper
November 2022

VISION, EXPERIENCE, ANSWERS FOR INDUSTRYARC White Paper • November 2022

CONTENTSExecutive Overview ............................................................................................................................ 3
Recommendations ............................................................................................................................. 8Copyright © ARC Advisory Group • arcweb.com • 2

ARC White Paper • November 2022

Executive Overview
There was a time when volume production additive manufacturing (AM)was considered to be far in the future for 3D printing technology. For manyyears, 3D printing saw its value in rapid
Successful industrial manufacturers arereplacing obsolete opinions about additive
manufacturing, resulting in environmentallyfriendly, low cost, consistent production level
manufacturing.

prototyping, design iterations and productdevelopment.

However,

applications,limitations

forin

production
printing

technology and material choices challenged
the ability to produce consistent quality partsaffordably. While some companies haveindeed embraced AM manufacturing and are

producing quality end user parts; the need remains to weigh up the complex
economics of instances where AM makes sense.
Some manufacturers may still believe that AM is a slow, expensive tool best
suited to prototyping, yet this belief is fast being replaced by manufacturers
successful in partaking in more sustainable, lower cost, and consistentproduction level manufacturing.
Some of the biggest pain points facing industrial manufacturers are industryspecific volatility, broken supply chains, acute labor shortages, andcomplexities around corporate sustainability. For example, the automotive
industry saw a significant downturn during the beginning of the Covid-19
crisis followed by the supply chain discontinuity of semiconducor parts in
2021 (among others), which significantly lowered the number of cars
produced. Forward-looking companies are digitally transforming to facethese challenges, and include 3D printing as an integral part of transforming
their manufacturing processes.
In particular, the advent of newer technologies like Selective Absorption Fusion (SAF) provide an opportunity to embrace additive manufacturing withconsistent quality and at production level scale while reducing material
waste, simplifying production, alleviating broken supply chains risks, andcutting costs.

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ARC White Paper • November 2022

Manufacturers Reap the Benefits of Printing Production LevelParts
A new light shines on industrialized additive manufacturing as hardware
additive manufacturing innovation, IoT software, services, and material advances intersect with global uncertainty and unrest. Prototyping willcontinue to be an important use case. Use cases proliferate and feature higher
throughput production of end use parts and products as additive manufacturing technologies have become more accurate, reliable and less expensive.
Software is better tailored to additive manufacturing workflow, and material
choices are become increasingly plentiful.

Use Case

Definition

Growth as it relates to overall
2021-2026 CAGR of 13.7%

Parts for New Products

Using 3D printing rather
than traditional manufacturing methods for newproducts.
Replacement parts notmade by the original
equipment manufacturer.
Fabrication of a model of aphysical part in a multitude of manufacturingindustries.

++Parts for Aftermarket
Prototyping+=Five Year CAGR sourced from ARC Additive Manufacturing Machinery BY 2021 Report:+ Higher Growth, ++ Significantly Higher Growth, =In Line with CAGR,- Lower Growth

Adopting AM beyond prototyping and moving from light production into
serialized production of major parts are expected to be an increasing driverof market growth. The market for industrial additive manufacturing willgrow at a double-digit five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate through2026 (Source: ARC Additive Manufacturing for Machinery BY2021 Report).
As with other transformative technologies, adopters must balance short-term
investments and capital expenditures vs. much needed innovation in a competitive world.
Additive manufacturing at the production level isn’t meant to universally
replace traditional manufacturing methods such as machining, injection
molding or casting. In some use cases, market segment volumes will neverCopyright © ARC Advisory Group • arcweb.com • 4

ARC White Paper • November 2022

justify traditional manufacturing. Spare parts printing is a compelling example. Careful analysis of volumes, benefits and cost savings is required before
simply recreating existing traditional manufacturing using 3D printing. The
biggest benefits are realized when manufacturers design for 3D from the conception of a product. Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) takes
advantage of the design freedom that comes with 3D printing. DfAM allows
manufacturers to reap the benefits of complex geometries and the use of tools
such as generative design to create parts that would otherwise be too difficult
or costly to justify with traditional manufacturing methods.
Generative design is an iterative process that generates multiple design outputs meeting predefined constraints and requirements for fit, form, andfunction. Design engineering can augment the output by manipulating thevalues of the constraint variables. This allows for many design solutions tobe presented in a very short period of time.
Today, manufacturers face supply chain disruptions, material shortages, labor shortages, order backlogs, rising prices and shipping and logistics issues.
Local or global supply chain disruptions and vulnerabilities have beenbrought to light by the Covid pandemic and current geopolitical tensions.
Delays and inefficiencies are further exacerbated when one supplier is thesole source for a part, or when one geographic area holds most of the options
for a particular supply. Container shortages and port delays create material
shortages, forcing business leaders to rethink standard sourcing practices
such as low-cost sourcing and just-in-time manufacturing.
Additionally, more recent challenges include an acute labor shortage and anincreasing complexity in the demands of manufacturers as well as a need tounderstand and measure the impact their actions have on global sustainability initiatives. More than ever, companies are facing a manufacturing labor
shortage, which is driving many organizations to accelerate investments intechnologies to help boost the performance of their existing staff.
The pandemic, political unrest and climate disruption has completelychanged the global economy and market dynamics across many industries.
Industries that are already adopting additive manufacturing are also affectedby vertical-specific trends. For example, the aerospace and defense sector has
faced huge headwinds. During the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic, investment stalled. But as the industry began to recover, capex spending has
focused on digital innovation. Historically, spending is driven differently by
the defense vs. the commercial sector. The commercial sector is heavily tied

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ARC White Paper • November 2022

to passenger traffic, which is trying to creep back to pre-pandemic levels. Butairlines themselves are struggling to meet demands amid staffing shortages,
and reduced flight schedules. The demand from the defense sector remains
solid as geopolitical tensions result in increased defense budgets.
Like the automotive industry, the aerospace and defense industry is driven
by increased energy efficiency and manufacturing optimization. This in turnwill continue to push the market to employ innovative manufacturing technologies and advanced materials, as can be provided by additivemanufacturing. The automotive industry has its own set of unique challenges. Increasing vehicle electrification, tighter networking across theautomotive value chain, the entrance of new competitors, and chip shortages
are pushing this industry toward transformative technologies.
The automotive industry has been the largest industry for additive manufacturing but has dropped in both size and year over year growth. Despite thedrop in demand for cars, innovations surrounding additive manufacturingcontinue to be adopted by the industry. The automotive industry use cases
for AM initially had been for new product development prototyping, but
now include tooling, jigs, fixtures, and parts. Additive manufacturing is expected to continue to produce product differentiation and competitive
advantages in this and other key industries.

Successful Manufacturers Lower Costs While Mitigating Supply
Chain Risks and Becoming More Sustainable
Implemented properly, additive manufacturing can reduce material waste,
simplify production, reduce lead times, alleviate high inventory costs, andoptimize product design. With the advent of powder bed fusion processes
driven by industrial printhead technology such as Selective Absorption Fusion (SAF), manufacturers are achieving accurate, consistent production atcompetitive part costs. An example is 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys. The
company’s SAF technology uses an infrared-sensitive high absorbing fluid
to fuse particles of polymer powder together in discreet layers to build parts.
Quality, consistency, and reliability are achieved through a proprietary technology that includes powder distribution across a bed, where industrialgrade piezoelectric print heads jet the fluid in prescribed areas to create eachlayer of a part. This is followed by exposure to infrared energy, which causes
the areas with high absorbing fluid to melt and fuse together. Careful thermal control throughout the build volume leads to more consistent part

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ARC White Paper • November 2022

production. The system uses renewable, biosourced PA11 which is not only
durable, but is also known to fit well as part of a sustainability program.
Sustainability has become a hot topic. Investors and consumers are expecting
business to take steps to address its environmental impact on the planet. To
meet the ever-pressing sustainability goals, industry is taking the lead wherever it can. The eyes of the world are looking for companies to produce green
solutions to fight climate change and additive manufacturing is providing
solutions to make this more attainable. AM has recently seen a major uptick
in recognition as being more sustainable, in some cases over traditional manufacturing methods. High marks for sustainability are not only achieved
with renewable materials such as PA11, but also in the higher yield of partsand material reuse. Other potential benefits include reduced waste inventory, and reduced energy expended in transporting parts across long supply
chains.
The ability to produce high-volume parts with accuracy and repeatability
from build to build and machine to machine combined with the ability tominimize waste by recycling powder, boasts a very attractive return on investment.
Broken supply chains have been brought front and center the past few years.
Supply chains are fragile due to political turmoil, climatic events, pandemics,and economic uncertainty. Additive manufacturing mitigates supply chain
risk with a “design anywhere, produce locally” strategy. Ultimately, this canalleviate expensive complex manufacturing, shorten lead times, and reduceinventory. Producing locally also mitigates high import/export costs andrisky sole sourcing. Growth in the adoption of manufacturing-scale 3D printing helps manufacturers address their supply chain challenges.
Today we have a manufacturing labor shortage, which has caused many organizations to accelerate investments in technologies to help amplify theperformance of their existing staff. In addition to an aging and retiring workforce and difficulty in finding people with the right skills, the “greatresignation” remains a hallmark of the labor market today. With demand forlabor historically high and more workers quitting their jobs, there is no better
time to transform business processes to retain best talent and optimize processes to do more with less. Embracing production-level SAF additive
manufacturing can result in an increased revenue per headcount whenchoosing a printer that is easy to use, consistent, high yielding and scalable.

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ARC White Paper • November 2022

What a Production Level Additive Manufacturing Solution Looks
Like for Top Tier Innovative Manufacturers
Making the decision to utilize additive manufacturing for production is nota trivial decision. Incorporating innovative technologies into existing business process flows typically requires a cross-collaborative culture. Successful
manufacturers who have integrated end-to-end solutions often involve multiple constituents within an organization.
Cross-functional collaboration between manufacturing, IT, research & development, and engineering is prevalent in the most successful additive
manufacturing production level programs. Research and development werethe earliest adopter and still may be the “champions” of 3D printing within
an enterprise.
Historically, when 3D printing’s goal was to simply transform manual prototype techniques to digital, it was common and effective for this to be in thehands of R&D, but this is no longer true with a digitized manufacturing process from design to end use parts. Successful manufacturers need to integrate
an end-to-end solution workflow connecting software, hardware, and postprocessing solutions. Not all companies are able to connect the dots to implement an end-to-end production process using additive manufacturing.
Some successfully turn to third party 3D printing services manufacturers fora variety of reasons. These may include a desire to try before buying, accessto a breadth of technologies that can’t be justified in house, location flexibility, skills gap, financial limitation, or cultural limitation.

Recommendations
Industrial customers interested in exploiting additive manufacturing to enable next generation manufacturing digital transformation strategies havenumerous issues to consider. Based on ARC research and analysis we recommend the following actions to industrial manufacturers:•Expand use case mindset beyond prototyping: While prototyping andproof-of concept will still make up an important part of the 3D printinglandscape, the true benefit is in exploring new use cases such as parts fornew products and aftermarket parts where value can come in the formof operational efficiencies, creation of new products, or even the transformation of the customer experience.

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ARC White Paper • November 2022•

Understand the benefits of Selective Absorption Fusion (SAF) technology: SAF is an industrial-grade powder-based additive manufacturing
technology which brings the realization of higher levels of consistentquality end-user parts to production. Often this can be done at a lower
cost and sustainably.

•

Weigh outsourcing vs. in-house: Uncertain global macro-economic conditions have constrained budgets in some industries. Rather than be left
behind in the additive manufacturing revolution, some companies areweighing outsourcing as their entry into 3D printing. Factors to consider
include budget, in-house expertise, identification of applications, and use
cases and volume. For those exploring high volume production, a service
bureau has proven to have the capacity and knowledge to help test production

hypotheses

beforemakingmorepermanentcapitalexpenditures.
•Design for additive manufacturing: Utilize generative design tools tocreate parts that would otherwise be too difficult or costly to justify withtraditional manufacturing methods. This will result in a multitude of design solutions to be presented in a very short period of time. Redesigning
an existing part or creating a new one with production-level additive
manufacturing in mind, when done correctly, provides the opportunity
for design improvements, material advantages, speed and cost savings.

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ARC White Paper • November 2022

Analyst: Marianne D’Aquila
Editor: Larry O’Brien

Acronym Reference:
AM Additive Manufacturing
DfAM Design for Additive Manufacturing
SAF Selective Absorption Fusion

Founded in 1986, ARC Advisory Group is the leading technology research and advisory firm for industry, infrastructure, andcities. ARC stands apart due to our in-depth coverage of information technologies (IT), operational technologies (OT), engineering technologies (ET), and associated business trends. Our analysts and consultants have the industry knowledge and firsthand experience to help our clients find the best answers to the complex business issues facing organizations today. We provide
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and evaluate and select the best technology solutions for their needs.
All information in this report is proprietary to and copyrighted by ARC. No part of it may be reproduced without prior permission from ARC. This research has been sponsored in part by Stratasys. However, the opinions expressed by ARC in this paper
are based on ARC's independent analysis.
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