Micro Additive Manufacturing (AM) is allowing manufacturers to disrupt the way that a product is designed, developed, and manufactured, key among the possibilities being the opportunity to take advantage of the way in which AM allows for the design and production of extremely complex geometries at no additional cost.
Micro AM is also much more agile and flexible than traditional alternative manufacturing technologies, the requirement for no tooling meaning that designs can be altered with little expense, and the potential for mass customization is now open to players in the micro manufacturing space.
Through the use of micro AM, manufacturers can also optimize workflow, the technology producing less scrap and fewer tools than conventional manufacturing processes. It also promotes the reduction of iterative process, assembly, and inventory. This means that significant operational cost benefits are now attainable at the micro manufacturing level.
Micro AM appeals to an array of manufacturers that up until now have not been able to cost-effectively or efficiently fulfil design intent using traditional manufacturing processes. In addition, being agnostic to part complexity, and therefore allowing the manufacture of hollow structures, holes, complicated interior details, and atypical shapes, Micro AM is promoting innovation and therefore is accurately described as a true enabling technology.