Get Expert Insight into Material Characterization for Additive Manufacturing

por John Duffy, Friday, 15th September 2023

Additive manufacturing (AM) dates from the late 1980s – and, just like the rest of us who remember George Michael and Whitney Houston topping the pop charts, it’s changed a lot since those days!

Going places

Let’s take a brief look at how AM has evolved. Starting life as a prototyping tool using polymer materials, AM has today reached a level of maturity where many large companies are now using it for full-scale production. Today, AM includes a wide variety of materials including metals and ceramics. Big companies are now using AM for creating actual products, which makes up 33.7% of all applications in the AM sector.

No rule-breaking

Despite this promising development, AM faces some hurdles – mainly around quality control. This is especially true in industries like aerospace and healthcare, where there are strict rules for product approval. These rules make sure products are safe and of high quality, but they can also slow down the development process. In fact, many large manufacturers have been developing and qualifying their materials and processes for up to 20 years, and only now seeing the rewards! Additionally, the AM industry is still working on creating guidelines and standards to support manufacturers.

Due to the need for more consistent quality, material characterization is playing a big role in AM’s evolution. This process is vital for certification, helping to understand various properties of materials including their elemental composition and how they behave under different temperatures. Characterizing your materials not only helps in maintaining their quality and safety – and the quality of the parts you manufacture – but also supports the creation of new materials and processing methods. Simply put, material characterization is essential for success in AM.

Get expert insight with our on-demand webinar

Our special on-line seminar, held in cooperation with Netzsch Analyzing and Testing and the University of Sheffield, provided a platform to discuss the vital importance of material characterization in AM. This event brought together experts from industry and academia to talk about the important methods and requirements for researching, analyzing and qualifying materials for AM. If you enjoyed the event and would like a refresher (or if you missed it), you can now access the recordings here.

To find out how our world-class analytical instruments can advance your AM processes, click here.
Check out our full library of on-demand webinars and other educational content here.
Further reading

Watch the recordings