According to SmarTech Publishing’s latest report on additive manufacturing with titanium – Titanium Opportunities in Additive Manufacturing — 3D-printed titanium will have a critical strategic role in producing low-weight, highly efficient cars.

Within the automotive industry, the motorsports sector will be the primary users of 3D-printed titanium parts.  At present the value of the titanium consumed is tiny.  However, by 2019, the value of titanium consumed by the automotive sector will exceed $10 million and by 2024 it will be close to $50 million.  Throughout the period we expect to see titanium demand within the automotive sector come mostly from continued use for high-performance parts in racing vehicles.  By 2024, the automotive is expected to utilize 103 metric tons in annual demand of titanium and titanium alloys powders.

SmarTech Publishing forecasts that global revenues for titanium use in the automotive sector will grow faster after 2019 to reach $48 million by 2024

Progress Towards 3D-printed Titanium in Automotive

Several factors suggest to us that 3D-printed titanium has a future in the automotive industry:

# 1.  3D-printed titanium is already being used.  As the picture of activity at Monash Motorsport shows below, there is already some serious activity in this space.   So there are already small beachheads for printed titanium in car manufacturing of a certain sort

#2  Perfect for lightweighting.  For non-cost sensitive automotive industry projects with a lightweighting goals, 3D-printed titanium is the ideal material; both 3d-printing and titanium contribute to making parts lighter.  Combining them would be a winning combination.  This may prove even truer as electric cars become more commonplace, with lighter car bodies and parts playing an even greater role in increasing fuel economy.

#3  Improved titanium-based designs.  Automotive manufacturers have struggled with integration of titanium into designs, but 3D printing is helping to break down barriers thanks to increased production effectiveness. In our opinion, 3D printing could prove to be a catalyst to for further use of titanium in automotive, with eventual benefits in terms of increased product performance for the car industry as a whole.

Monash Motorsports (MMS) teamed up with the CSIRO’s Lab 22 that specializes in the additive manufacturing of titanium 6Al-4V, to 3D print hubs and interchangeable uprights. (Credits: www.monashmotorsport.com)

The impact of these market drivers is expected to accelerate as the cost of titanium additive manufacturing goes down. Efforts to reduce these costs are already underway.  These consist of (1) reduction of AM system cost itself, as well as (2) alternate titanium powder production methods to reduce actual material cost per kilogram of titanium. Both avenues would ultimately reduce cost of 3D printed titanium parts for automobile manufactures and potentially result in increased titanium powder demand in the automobile industry

It is still not immediately clear if 3D printed titanium will make significant inroads beyond the motorsports segment and into commercial vehicle markets.  Other metals could prove more efficient and cost effective for automotive parts production. On the other hand due to its excellent weight-to-strength ratio, titanium may prove particularly effective in driving 3D printing adoption in the automotive industry as a whole.

About SmarTech Publishing’s 3D-Printed Titanium Report

Titanium Opportunities in Additive Manufacturing — presents both ten-year market forecast data as well as critical market analysis for 3D-printed titanium use in key end-user industries such as automotive, aerospace, medical and dentistry.  It also discusses the primary opportunity factors related to the broader supply chain, primary providers of AM titanium powder and other forms, and an analysis of the print technologies and powder production processes associated with 3D-printed titanium.

If interested in receiving a quote or purchasing this report, please contact missy@smartechpublishing.com.

About SmarTech Publishing

SmarTech Publishing is the leading provider of market research and industry analysis in the 3D printing/additive manufacturing sector.  We have published reports on most of the important revenue opportunities in the 3D printing sector including personal printers, low-volume manufacturing, 3D printing materials, medical/dental markets, aerospace, automotive and other promising 3D market segments.  Our client roster includes some of the largest 3D printer firms, materials firms and investors in the world.

www.smartechpublishing.com

Contact:
Lawrence Gasman
lawrence@smartechpublishing.com
434-872-0450

To meet the demands of the growing base of professional and industrial 3D printer users, SmarTech Publishing is releasing a series of practical manuals providing guidance on how to select and use 3D printing (3DP)/additive manufacturing (AM) technology.  Each of these publications will cover a different aspect of 3DP/AM.

The first publication in the series has already been published – “The Production Manager’s Complete Guide to: 3D Printing with Metals.” Other soon-to-be-published reports in “Production Manager’s Complete Guide” series will include monographs on 3D Printing in the Medical Space, Selecting a 3DP/AM Technology Suited to Your Needs, and Low-Cost Prototyping.

“We created this new series of Guides for industrial and professional 3DP/AM adopters in order to offer a practical and immediately useful tool providing insights and information for a quick and successful AM integration in current manufacturing processes,” said Lawrence Gasman, SmarTech Publishing’s President and CEO, “In order to provide the most exhaustive and complete information we are leveraging on the extensive knowledge database that we have been building by researching, analyzing and reporting on the 3D printing industry over the past four years.”

SmarTech Publishing’s Guide to Printing Metals:  An Insider Perspective

Parts produced by metal AM – such as an optimized bracket for Airbus aircraft  – are already beginning to appear and the dental industry is also using metal AM extensively. Although the full digital additive manufacturing workflow is still in the evolving, metal AM already offers many opportunities for streamlining a company’s production workflow, optimizing costs and time to market.

SmarTech Publishing believes a growing number of production managers, designers and engineers are looking for clear and practical information on implementing the 3D printing of metals, which can often be a tricky proposition.  We believe that The Production Manager’s Complete Guide to: 3D Printing with Metals will serve as a “guide to the perplexed” for those new to this field, as well as the more experienced technical managers who need to refresh their understanding of 3D printing metals.

As we see it, accurate, carefully organized information is the most precious commodity in a young and rapidly growing industry such as additive manufacturing, and this Guide aims to provide this for metals printing.  Such information is usual scattered at best and this is why SmarTech Publishing is now using its huge database of information on metals printing as the base for this Guide, which will enable a production manager to gain a complete view of 3D printing’s current offer in terms of metals-based solutions.

To best exploit the potential of metal AM a production manager needs to be aware of the different technologies and materials available, and SmarTech Publishing’s Guide can provide this knowledge from an insider’s perspective.

From the Guide

The Production Manager’s Complete Guide to: 3D Printing with Metals begins by analyzing the reasons why it would be more convenient to use metal AM processes instead of traditional manufacturing and continues by exploring applications within those industries (aerospace, dentistry, medical and automotive) that have already begun using metal AM for both prototyping as well as real, short run production runs.

Today there are six major families of metals and related alloys (steel, iron, titanium, cobalt-chrome, nickel, aluminum and precious metals) that can be used for AM. Each metal offers unique possibilities and is ideal for several different applications. These are implemented through different AM technologies, which are themselves divided into three major families: powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition (powder fed) and binder jetting (also powder bed-based). The possible combinations are already very vast and they are destined to grow significantly in the next decade.  Our Guide covers all of these topics — in depth.

The Guide also provides access to the complete scenario of who the manufacturers are, what technologies they offer and what materials can be used – in fact all the stages necessary toward successful AM implementation. The metals Guide was written for manufacturing and operations managers who are called to develop and deploy a precise strategy for AM implementation in their company’s process workflow and are seeking to limit the trial and error phase to a minimum.

Deciding if metal additive manufacturing is the right choice in your plant begins with five questions anyone seeking to implement 3D printing (not just for metals) in their workflow should ask. These five questions take into consideration budget and part design as well as the number of parts required and the benefits deriving from elements such as personalization and weight optimization. SmarTech Publishing believes that AM is going be an integral part of tomorrow’s manufacturing practices and as such it is ideal for parts and components designed specifically to leverage on the unique geometrical possibilities offered by digital and additive production processes. Knowing what these are is one of the keys for a successful integration of AM.

Perhaps the greatest challenge to successfully implementing metal AM today is the high initial investment required however its biggest promises are cost reductions and production optimizations.

To purchase the The Production Manager’s Complete Guide to: 3D Printing with Metals or for more information on this and other Guides go to https://additivemanufacturingresearch.com/end-user-reports/.

If interested in receiving a quote or purchasing this report, please contact missy@smartechpublishing.com

Contact:
Lawrence Gasman
Lawrence@smartechpublishing.com
434-872-0450

In its new report Additive Manufacturing Opportunities in Oil and Gas Markets 2016 – A Ten-Year Forecast https://additivemanufacturingresearch.com/reports/additive-manufacturing-opportunities-in-oil-gas-markets-2016-a-ten-year-forecast/  leading analyst firm SmarTech Publishing, paints a bright picture for the growth of additive (AM) adoption in the oil & gas industry, with global revenues expected to reach $450 million by 2021 and pass the $1.4 billion mark by 2025.

SmarTech Publishing’s new study reports that the long-term outlook for opportunities for AM in the oil & gas industry are strongly positive, throughout the ten-year forecast period. However, the oil & gas industry is lagging behind in terms of AM adoption compared to other major industries such as aerospace, medical and even automotive, and major revenue generation for AM will not materialize until 2018.  From then on, the opportunities for AM in oil & gas will grow rapidly.

The chart describes the projected growth for business volume of AM adoption in the Oil & Gas Industry. Overall growth is expected to reach nearly 2000%.
Source:  SmarTech Publishing

Opportunities
Oil & gas enterprises, favor conservative and proven processes regardless of their cost structure or efficiency.  This trend has been reinforced in recent years as oil reserves have come under the control of large sovereign national groups, which are often even less likely to invest in technological innovation.  The bottom line here is that genuine opportunities for generating AM-related revenues in the oil & gas sector will only be found where the benefits are (more or less) immediate and where they can be easily proven.

• The report  confirms that most of the immediate benefits of AM in the upstream segment of the oil & gas industry can be seen in the the production of more efficient drill bits. This can be achieved both by powder bed AM technologies, used to produce parts with integrated sensors, and by directed energy deposition based AM technologies, which represent a viable solution for outfitting existing drill bit designs with new sensory equipment through remanufacturing.
• Pump components and valve fittings may also be optimized by AM technologies through improved designs which yield better operating ranges in terms of pressure control and improving the flow rates for oil and gas products during extraction and separation.

A metal powder binder jetting proces scan be implemented with metal powders to directly produce complex components at significantly lower costs and altogether shorter lead times.
Image credits: The ExOne Company

 

• Also, highly beneficial to the oil & gas sector is the use of AM for tooling and realization of custom sand casts for injection molding. This is ideal for optimizing production of fixed cutter drill bit manufacturing for well drilling, where the traditional process is painstakingly laborious and could be significantly streamlined.
• The same binder jetting process used for tooling with mineral-based materials can also be implemented with metal powders to directly produce complex components at significantly lower costs. For example to manufacture short runs of downhole stators made of an extremely resistant stainless/bronze infiltrated metal powder material. In a now famous use case scenario this yielded excellent results a drastically reduced costs.

Before getting deep into direct production of final components for the upstream segment, SmarTech Publishing believes the oil & gas industry will have to undergo a phase in which it fully familiarizes itself with digital additive manufacturing.

This will be achieved by implementing polymer-based and mineral based binder jetting technologies for prototyping and physical modeling processes. Often overlooked as the obvious or lower value proposition use of AM technologies, this approach will see the most growth in the Oil & Gas industry over the next 2-3 years. The processes has already begun.

Often considered as the lower value proposition of AM, increased polymer-based prototyping using 3D printing technologies is likely to generate significant revenues and cost savings in the Oil&Gas sector.
Image Credits: Shell (Stones Project)

Down the Stream
Although the E&P segment stands to benefit the most from AM implementation, these benefits easily extend to the midstream (transportation) and downstream (refinery) segments as well.

• For example for the production of heat exchangers which are necessary in the separation process as well as to pass through midstream processing and refinery facilities. In some cases, final use heat exchangers have been printed in their entirety.
• Also important in the AM context is the production of complex valve fittings, which are necessary to achieve constant flow of revenue generating product, and to increase safety. Those already being manufactured by GE at its Kariwa plant in Japan represent just the tip of what could be possible in terms of optimization of the existing designs in oil and gas equipment in order to increase both the flow rates and reduce instances of pressure drop.

As SmarTech Publishing sees it AM makes perfect sense for the oil & gas industry is that it can open the door to real distributed manufacturing of on-demand spare parts, something that can be extremely useful on both remote open sea platforms and tankers. Oil & Gas giant Maersk has publicly expressed its interest and ongoing research regarding these applications, which could prove already prove beneficial for reducing logistical supply chains and related costs for its tanker fleets.

About SmarTech Publishing

SmarTech Publishing is the leading provider of market research and industry analysis in the 3D printing/additive manufacturing sector.  We have published reports on most of the important revenue opportunities in the 3D printing sector including personal printers, low-volume manufacturing, 3D printing materials, medical/dental markets, aerospace, automotive and other promising 3D market segments.  Our client roster includes some of the largest 3D printer firms, materials firms and investors in the world.

If interested in receiving a quote or purchasing this report, please contact: missy@smartechpublishing.com
See more: www.smartechpublishing.com

Contact:
Lawrence Gasman
lawrence@smartechpublishing.com
434-872-0450

Continue reading