How Emerging Materials & Machines Will Impact Your Supply Chain

Functional fiber-reinforced composites, metal matrix ceramics, and functional additives in plastics in 3D printing are changing the face of supply chains, specifically around product performance, cost, and decreasing time to market. In this session, trends including the recent hype in metal 3D printing technologies and their proposed production capabilities will be addressed. Similarly, the development and availability of comparable as well as new printable material feedstocks are key to every manufacturing supply chain. This session will also cover the potential benefits for distributed manufacturing and the order in which different applications will benefit from the concept.