Posted on

Sustainability in additive manufacturing?

2019 has been the year of environmental sustainability, with global protests and increased political and social focus. The additive manufacturing industry isn’t an exception; sustainability is on the agenda. But how?

We are entering a new era for additive manufacturing now. One in which the increase in adoption for production applications requires the industry to mature and demonstrate the reliability, repeatability and quality of more established manufacturing techniques. This was clear during the recent Formnext 2019, where there was a significant message coming from most OEM’s, which was more focused on delivering on previous promises made of their technology. During the recent Formnext 2019, newly appointed CEO of EOS, Marie Langer, was asked about her priorities for the coming years, she discussed a focus on delivering repeatable and transferable processes, usability, quality and reliability. However, there was another significant topic that came up during that press event, and as the week progressed, it was a topic widely discussed on the Formnext floors. The topic was sustainability in additive manufacturing.

The topic was discussed in press conferences, in panel discussions, at networking events, and in one-on-one conversations.

For Marie Langer sustainability is a critical subject and one the whole industry should be championing. This was echoed by Brian Neff, CEO of Sintavia, who also commented on the opportunity and advantage AM has, as a more sustainable production technology than traditional subtractive manufacturing technologies. Langer spoke about developing more sustainable materials that could be recycled and re-used. Brian highlighted that for metal AM, there is far less material waste and that through distributed manufacturing, shipping could be reduced and therefore the overall carbon footprint of producing a part could be lowered.

The topic of sustainability was also taken up by Rush LaSelle, Senior Director, Additive Manufacturing, at Jabil Additive, as he was on a panel on Formnext TV. LaSelle described the benefits of distributed manufacturing from the perspective of sustainability. Moreover, senior leaders in companies like Carpenter Additive, HP, and DSM, made it clear, that sustainability is on the agenda. Camille Caron, HP’s Director of Education and Sustainability for their 3D printing business has recently written an article about this topic.

It seems clear that AM has the opportunity to lead the global manufacturing market as a sustainable production technology. The benefits offered through reduced material waste, supply chain innovations that reduce the needs for shipping parts thousands of miles, the use of recycled plastics and metals in materials, as well as the development of new recyclable materials, can all position AM as the most sustainable production solution for companies. It comes at a time where large companies are all under pressure to reduce carbon footprint and do more to protect and preserve the environment. Therefore this opportunity is one that could further support the acceleration of the AM industry as a whole. However, while this topic was widely talked about at a senior level, there is still very little being done to actually drive sustainability initiatives. Part of that problem likely lies with the question “Who is responsible?”. How many AM organisations, be they machine OEM’s, Materials Companies etc. have a Head of Sustainability, or at least an internal champion to take ownership? This is something Alexander Daniels Global are going to explore more and early in 2020 plan to prepare a report looking directly at what the major companies are doing to further this very important cause.

By Nick Pearce, Director of Alexander Daniels Global

The post Sustainability in additive manufacturing? appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Posted on

The Skilled Workforce the Additive Manufacturing Industry Needs

Since its beginning, the additive manufacturing industry has experienced significant growth, evident in Wohlers Associates’ yearly reports. Behind this growth is a talented workforce. But, as with most disruptive technologies, the sector growth happens much quicker than the pace of learning, leading to a talented workforce.
This lag has created what is commonly known as the additive manufacturing skills gap; the notion that there are simply not enough talented professionals to fill jobs and thus meet the needs and demand from the AM employers.

“The gap between supply and demand will continue to worsen for the next three to five years. After this time academic qualifications that can be gained through universities and other sources of training and development will emerge to help bridge the skills gap,” says Director and Founder of i-amdigital.com, Nick Pearce.

The Additive Manufacturing Talent of the Future

Stating that the AM industry needs talent is easy. Identifying what type of talent is the challenge. In order to train the future workforce, we must first understand what skills are demanded by the industry, and what sort of talent is required to enable the industry growth.

i-amdigital.com has researched the additive manufacturing industry to draw up a profile of AM talent of the future, based on what the industry employers need together with the general industry needs, now and in the future.


Source: i-amdigital.com

 

Hard skills

Broad Knowledge of Manufacturing

AM industry leaders continue to demand a workforce with interdisciplinary profiles and a broad knowledge of manufacturing. This is because AM is not any single technology, but a whole integrated set of manufacturing technology and processes. Having a broad knowledge of manufacturing enables professionals to better understand the relationship between the different processes, materials, and technologies. This will help the workforce to innovate and optimize new products for the AM technology.

Application Knowledge

With the vast and almost incomprehensible amount of applications, the AM industry needs to help people understand the exact capabilities and limitations of the machines and tools. Having application knowledge will enable professionals to support their customers in either using the technology or understanding its capabilities, leading to a wider adoption of AM technologies across multiple sectors.

Design Knowledge

To establish an efficient AM process, engineers should understand how to design for the AM process. There is an increasing need amongst AM employers for people with design for AM (DfAM) skills, and design is one of the most demanded disciplines in AM. Bringing in people who understand the process of manufacturing within AM; who understand conventional manufacturing; and who can combine that knowledge through the design work, is a key enabler for the AM technology moving forward.

Commercial Knowledge

The ideal AM professional will also possess some commercial knowledge, enabling them to maximize AM’s potential within their organization. Understanding how a business works and understanding how the use of AM technology can improve the business through profitability, productivity, market share, KPI’s, etc. will help the AM professionals build compelling business cases for why an organization should use AM technology for certain processes. Without this, the cost-benefit analysis of implementing AM technology will mean very little to the decision makers of the business.

Knowledge and experience from vertical markets

Having experience in an AM vertical (automotive, aerospace, medical, etc.) will enable the workforce to understand where in the manufacturing processes AM will be useful. Having a deep knowledge about specific regulations, material applications, supply chain, and industry trends in a certain vertical will allow a professional to understand how to take advantage of AM in the manufacturing processes.

Knowledge of additive manufacturing technologies

The workforce does not need to know all the different AM technologies in detail as, most often, companies will carry out internal trainings on their specific used technology. However, going into the industry with a prior general knowledge of the AM technologies and the materials being used, is useful to ensure a smooth transition into AM.

Interdisciplinary Skills

Establishing an efficient AM production process requires the workforce to understand how to design for the AM process, what materials can be used, and how to use them.

Design and applications knowledge will guide traditional manufacturing into AM; the knowledge of applications and usability of the AM technology will help traditional manufacturing companies understand where and for what the AM technology can be used; how they can implement it in their existing or new processes; and how it can reduce time and cost of manufacturing.

Combining applications knowledge with the commercial knowledge will form a business case for the wider adoption and use of additive manufacturing; applications knowledge will help traditional manufacturing companies transition into AM by showing them how and where AM technology can be used, and how it can optimise certain parts of their manufacturing processes. This business case (built by application and commercial knowledge) will need DfAM knowledge to redesign or design opponents, processes, machines, materials, etc.

 

Soft skills

The ideal AM professional of the future will not only have hard skills as mentioned above, but will also encompass several key soft skills, in order to make them succeed in the AM industry.

Mental Elasticity and Complex Problem Solving

The AM technology and its usability in different sectors, organisations and manufacturing processes, is complex, and there are often many variables to consider in order to define certain solutions. Therefore, the workforce needs to be able to solve complex problems.

Critical Thinking and Analytical skills for Decision Making

AM technology is often being pushed to the limits. Critical thinking is key to not just ride the wave of the traditional ways of using the technology, but to break out of the cycle and reinvent and experiment with new techniques, design, technologies, and materials.

Creativity

Finding new applications for the AM technology; printing new parts using AM; and inventing new materials for printing, all require creativity.

Interpersonal communication skills

To help AM break through, interpersonal communication skills is crucial to build compelling cases and argue for the use of AM towards internal organizations or clients looking to adopt AM.

Active learner

New technologies and new applications spur every day, and the workforce needs to keep up. If they do not keep up, and if they do not learn proactively, they will become obsolete.

These skills make up the ideal AM workforce that can ensure a sustainable and growing additive manufacturing industry for years to come, and these are the type of skills that aspiring AM professionals should try to obtain, in their pursuit of entering the additive manufacturing industry.

The post The Skilled Workforce the Additive Manufacturing Industry Needs appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Posted on

Additive Manufacturing Materials Talent Insight

Recently, at AMPM2019 Conference in Phoenix, Additive Manufacturing industry experts identified materials as one of the main challenges of the 3D printing industry and its growth. Developing more materials in Additive Manufacturing means a higher demand for materials specialised professionals in the AM industry.

i-AMdigital has researched the talent landscape within AM materials, to identify where this talent can be found, and what the top employers, universities and technologies used are.

Who are the materials specialists, working with 3D Printing?

According to LinkedIn data analysis from June 2019, the three educational backgrounds that dominate the profiles of the AM material specialists are Material Sciences, Materials Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, with respectively 28%, 25% and 20%.

Mechanical and material engineering often go hand in hand, and the design of any machine cannot be separated from the materials used to make it, or the materials it will use itself. Moreover, materials must be developed and tested to achieve certain mechanical properties required by certain applications, verticals, markets and certification. This is the reason for the large percentage of mechanical engineering backgrounds. We are likely to see an increase in this combination of mechanical and materials engineering.

Whilst the metallurgical engineering background still holds a rather small percentage (3%), we are likely to see an increase in this, as the metal AM business is booming, and experienced metallurgists are increasingly highly sought-after.

Top 3D Printing technologies, used by AM materials specialists

i-AMdigital found that an impressive 38% of AM materials specialists primarily work with the Metal Powder Bed Fusion technology. This large percentage can be explained by the impressive boom in the metal AM market; according to the Wohlers’ Report 2019, the industry revenue from metals grew by 41.9% during 2018. This reflects the shift in the AM industry towards developing solutions better suited for serial production rather than rapid prototyping.

With 38% of material specialists working in metal AM, a 42% growth of the Metal AM market, and only 3% of material specialists coming from a metallurgy background, we can see a significant skills gap; the industry needs more materials specialists with metal background.

Who are their employers?

i-AMdigital investigated the companies employing the highest amount of AM material specialists, and found that they spread across several sectors of the industry; from end-users to 3D Printing Original Equipment Manufacturers.

The large employment of material specialists in end-user companies can be explained by the increase in the adoption of 3D Printing. According to Scupteo’s 2018 The State of 3D Printing report, there was an increase of 21% in the adoption of 3D Printing in production environments between 2017 and 2018. End-users, like Boeing and Rolls Royce, are increasingly adopting AM for producing more complex parts with more intricate design, as well as for tooling and prototyping. Employing material specialists is crucial for these end-users to adopt the technology efficiently and to help understand the capabilities of the machines and materials at hand. The AM OEM’s work hand in hand with end-users in order to (together) develop new applications, materials and software – and for that, they need material talent.

3D printing giants HP and Stratasys are natural appearances on this list of largest employers; their continuous development of new machines and applications require them to have a strong team of materials specialists to help drive their R&D departments. Moreover, the new markets and applications that are being explored by the AM OEM’s require new materials, which requires more AM material scientists and specialists.

Where are the AM material specialists located, geographically?

Which educational institutions house the talent?

www.i-AMdigital.com is a free platform dedicated to upskilling talent in the 3D Printing industry, in the pursuit of providing the industry and employers with a continuously growing talent pool.

The post Additive Manufacturing Materials Talent Insight appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Posted on

The State of the 3D Printing Talent Market

Alexander Daniels Global, a recruitment company specialized in Additive Manufacturing, has just released their third edition of their Additive Manufacturing Salary Study. The report covers all aspects of the talent market in the AM industry, including in-depth salary analysis and analysis of the scarcity of talent.

The study found a 3.9% increase in average salaries (across disciplines, seniorities and locations). This reflects a similar increase compared to other traditional manufacturing and engineering jobs/industries; proof that the AM industry is finding its place in the manufacturing sector. The biggest growth in 2018 was experienced within US for Sales and Software professionals, excluding C-level management, 14.5% and 11.9% respectively. The study dives into each discipline of the AM industry and uncovers the salaries by region and seniority.

The study found, that there is a general perception amongst AM professionals, that AM salaries are competitive, compared to salaries in similar industries. 37% of the survey respondents, believe that AM salaries are competitive or very competitive. This shows a positive change in the industry, and it signals how AM employers have started to realize the importance of being competitive in salary. The study goes on with Alexander Daniels Global explaining this industry change with two major arguments: the establishment and maturity of the industry, and the war for talent.

A section of the study covers and discusses the talent gap and the war for talent that still exists in the AM industry. Alexander Daniels Global quantifies and qualifies the talent gap of the industry, with analyses on the number of available professionals versus the number of jobs; the talent market with experience and disciplines; most in-demand roles and analyses of this; and the motivations to change jobs.

According to Alexander Daniels Global, at any one point, there are 4,000+ jobs relating to Additive Manufacturing being advertised globally. They suggest that the active talent pool with experience in the industry is less than 50,000. This means that there are only 12 active candidates, globally, for every job advertised. The study goes on arguing that even though this number may seem high, it really is not, when you take into account those 12 people could be based anywhere in the World and be from any discipline. Considering these factors, the actual relevant active talent pool per job is far smaller, maybe even as low as 1 or 2 relevant active candidates per role, but even still, they are unlikely to be based in the same location as the job being advertised.

This is the third consecutive year that Alexander Daniels Global publishes the AM specific salary study. The report has been created with the help of the entire AM industry and includes sections on the talent shortage, the most in-demand roles, AM salary competitiveness, the motivations and likelihood to change jobs, and in-depth salary analysis for each discipline of AM, across regions and seniorities.

Download your free version here.

For more information or questions, contact Social Media and Marketing Manager, Signe Damgaard, at signe.damgaard@alexanderdanielsglobal.com