Why are Aerospace & Defense Companies Embracing Additive Manufacturing?

It’s no longer a question of when metal additive manufacturing (AM)—and particularly metal laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF)—will become an accepted, reliable production technology, particularly in aerospace and defense. This is already the case now. Over the past 18 months a host of aerospace leaders, OEMs, startups, and contract manufacturers (CMs) alike have purchased, or begun outsourcing work to, advanced AM systems. They’re confidently producing end-use, 3D-printed parts—and sometimes entire rocket engines.