How Additive Manufacturing is Changing the Aerospace Industry

Additive manufacturing was invented more than 30 years ago and, from small beginnings in prototyping, has developed and grown into a $6 billion industry. While additive manufacturing for aerospace and defense has seen slower adoption than some other industries, the velocity is now visibly increasing. This has been enabled by the ongoing development of additive technologies that apply more increasingly to aerospace and defense -namely better plastics materials, faster 3D printing technologies, focused development of metals materials, and resulting technologies and processes that are increasingly easier to get qualified.