Automotive manufacturers are under great pressure to develop vehicles which are due to go into production from now to 2020. A panel of experts weigh in with their thoughts on how additive manufacturing could contribute to the automotive industry.

Siemens and the Fraunhofer Institute have developed a faster production process based on selective laser melting (SLM). By Dipl-Ing Jeroen Risse, Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT

Lichtenfels, Germany: The additive manufacturing provider Concept Laser attributed the aerospace and medical industry, as well as other sectors with an 88 percent increase in sales for the first half of 2016.

Bristol, UK: Renishaw is contributing its additive manufacturing expertise to a new £17.7 million (US$23.5 million) project, being led by Airbus in the UK, to develop a way of designing and manufacturing aircraft wings, which will encourage a “right first time approach” and reduce development time.

Arizona, USA: A report from Semico Research forecasts that revenues for the 3D printing industry (including printers, services, and materials) will eclipse US$6.5 billion in 2016. That figure is set to almost triple by 2021.

Seoul, S Korea: South Korea, although a relative latecomer in global additive manufacturing, is striving to boost technology and cultivate expertise in the industry.

Scott Crump, chairman and chief innovation officer of Stratasys explains how direct digital manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing, is fast emerging as a disruptive technology that may make manufacturers rethink manufacturing.

Minneapolis, US and Rehovot , Israel : Stratasys, the 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions company has named IBM veteran Tim Bohling as its chief marketing officer. Mr Bohling joins the company’s leadership team and will lead Stratasys worldwide marketing strategies to drive growth and deliver the company’s value promise to its customers.

Mr Bohling has served as vice president and head of North America marketing at HCL Technologies, an IT global ser vice provider, where he was charged with both formulation and execution of a marketing strategy designed to strengthen existing client relationships, fuel new signings, and elevate the HCL brand. He has also spent more than 10 years at IBM, engineering successful digital marketing and demand generation efforts as vice president of worldwide performance marketing at IBM Global Technology Services and as vice president of marketing at IBM Global Technology Services, Growth Markets.

A frequent guest speaker at industry conferences and whose research has been published in several scholarly journals including Marketing Science and the Journal of Marketing Research, Mr Bohling’s experience extends from helping organisations make and shape markets and transition from being produc t-or iented companies to integrated solutions focused companies to developing tested methodologies across a range of disciplines such as branding, digital marketing, end-to-end demand generation and market insight.

“Tim is a transformational market leader whose experience fits perfectly into our long-term strategy. A respected voice in the IT industry with a strong track-record, Tim will play a critical role as we accelerate Stratasys’ position as the driving force and dominant player in 3D printing,” said Joshua Claman, chief business officer of Stratasys.

Commenting on his new appointment and role, Mr Bohling said: “Stratasys has been at the forefront of the 3D printing industry since its inception and I believe it has tremendous future growth potential. This is an exciting time to be in the market, and I look forward to helping elevate the Stratasys brand to even greater heights and contributing to the company’s growth and market leadership.”

The Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center (HVAMC) at The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz) has opened an additive manufacturing superlab. The superlab, which is defined as employing high-end 3D printers of both PolyJet and FDM technologies, has received a designation by 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions company Stratasys as a “SMART lab”, that is, a Stratasys MakerBot Additive Research and Teaching laboratory.

Siemens has acquired a majority stake of 85 percent in UK-based Materials Solutions, which deals with additive manufacturing processing and production.