Factors Affecting the Scale-Up & Adoption Of 3D Printing As A Mainstream Manufacturing Approach

3D Printing is a manufacturing technique that offers unique benefits over conventional manufacturing, such as greater design freedom, novel geometries, decreased cost, reduced lead time, reduced waste, and personalization/customization. These benefits enable radically new methods of production, new and better designs, lower cost, enhanced productivity, and greater sustainability. There will also be impacts on trade. The decentralized manufacturing model enabled by 3D Printing will result in products being made closer to where they are used. To support this, raw materials and digital design files will cross borders, resulting in high-value cross-border digital dataflows. Further, intellectual property validation and protection will be critical to enable smooth transfer and redistribution of digital designs. Other legal issues on product ownership and origin will emerge. As 3D Printing becomes mainstream, there will also be a large scale shift in trade balance among countries. Overall, we foresee several general types of challenges, including trade system disruption, logistics/supply chain, IP/legal issues and economic development.