F E AT U R E
By Peter Zelinski
What if Metal Follows the
Same Path as Plastic?
It will, says Directed Manufacturing.
This company sees metal additive
manufacturing becoming as much of an
established technology for final part
production as plastic additive manufacturing is now. It expects to buy more
metal additive machines in anticipation
of the work that's coming.
T
oday, 99 percent of the time on Directed
Manufacturing's five plastic additive manufacturing machines is committed to making
production parts. Those parts include fuel tanks,
enclosures, winglets and other components for
unmanned aircraft. They also include various specialized surgical instruments and surgical alignment
guides. These selective-laser-sintered products are
all complex, high-value and low-volume—perfect
for additive manufacturing. In the past, additive
processes were associated with prototyping. Now,
except for that remaining 1 percent of machine time,
this is no longer the way that Directed's customers
view this capability.
But that's plastic. The Austin, Texas-based
additive manufacturing contractor uses 3D printing processes to make metal parts as well. Seeing
additive manufacturing accepted for plastic part
production took years, perhaps even decades.
Materials and processes had to be proven, the
company says, and designs and designers had to
adapt to the geometric freedom that additive manufacturing makes possible. In metal, this acceptance
10— AM Supplement
10— AM Supplement