Colourful developments advance 3D printing potential

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is slowly becoming an integral part of the design process for many vehicle manufactures, helping speed the development and design verification process. As its name implies, it takes the opposite approach to traditional subtractive technology. "3D printing is an additive manufacturing technology. You start from scratch and build on up. With the other current technology, most of the time you start with a block of aluminium and you mill out what you need. That results in a considerable waste of material," explained Wolfgang Kochan, General Manager for the DACH region at Stratasys.