Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a game-changer for the field of manufacturing, enabling significant savings of cost, time and materials. In traditional manufacturing, parts are manufactured in large quantities at centralized factories, then shipped out to consumers. But with the growth of AM, many wonder whether this technology will cause a shift from this centralized model to a more distributed model, in which facilities in different locations coordinate to fill manufacturing needs.
A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) and the University of Lisbon investigated how AM could contribute to distributed manufacturing. They examined whether AM will disrupt this central model, specifically in the context of spare parts for the aviation industry, where being able to quickly print parts instead of stockpiling them would be attractive.
"Our results suggest that 3D printing may not be as conducive to distributed manufacturing as some might hope," said Parth Vaishnav, an assistant research professor in EPP and member of the Next Manufacturing Center. Vaishnav and his colleagues also suggest in a recent paper in the journal Additive Manufacturing that it is more suitable for non-critical parts that do not need to be expensively processed after they emerge from the AM machine.