Metal Additive Manufacturing on the Nordic Market : Opportunities and Challenges

Sammanfattning: When thinking about additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing as most people knows it as, it is probably considered a modern technology, but the first 3D printer was actually released in 1987. But it is not until recently that companies have started to look more into the method for end use part manufacturing, since the patents for AM equipment expired in 2014. AM was mainly used for prototype manufacturing in the beginning, but since several different materials can be used for the technology now, there among metal, the parts made with AM can also be used for critical applications. The aim of the report was to investigate the opportunities and challenges for companies in the Nordics to use AM as a manufacturing method. To do this a survey was sent outin the beginning of the project to get a better understanding of how companies already uses AM and what other companies would need to consider implementing AM in their production. When a sufficient number of responses had been received, questions were designed based of the answers from the survey to use in interviews, with companies that somehow are involved with the AM industry. Based of the interviews it could be seen that all of the interviewed companies agreed that there is a lack of knowledge within AM and that the market for it is still immature. But if more people gets educated within the field and have faith in the technology, AM shows great potential, because it is already industrially applicable for end use part production.