Additive manufacturing AKA 3D Printing has been around in multiple forms since about 35 years ago. It has been known only for few people in product development and research and was mainly used for prototyping.

It was clear to all experts that the technology will eventually become a main stream manufacturing process and will have a significant impact on the industry. One of the main missing elements in the evolution of 3D printing is user creativity. Anubis 3D was created to lead the way in the introduction of plastic 3D prated parts as a replacement of metal parts in machine building.

The main question was always asked is why change? Why take the risk of replacing an Aluminum milled part by a plastic 3D Printed part? Answering this question to our early adaptors took us 3 years of hard work to make the point clear. The question that our customers are now asking their designers is, why machine it, have you checked printing it first?

There are few key points we learned from this experience and it was obvious time and time again.

Introducing the 3D printing to a company amounts to a cultural change, it needs a top down leadership. it needs patience to try it, learn about it and decide where is the best fit in the manufacturing process.
You need a champion in the organization to build success stories and then let it organically spread among the designers.
Understanding that designing for Additive Manufacturing is a skill that needs to be learned. It is like taking a part designed for milling and send it to injection molding company to build it, wont work, the parts that are intended to move to additive, needs to be carefully selected and resigned first. Simply taking apart from the inventory and getting a quote for printing it will get you the wrong answer.
Understand that introducing the industrial 3D printing is like adding a DeWalt cordless drill to your tool box. It can make a big deference, but on its own is not going to do anything, you also need to know what to do with it. Introducing Additive is the same. It will give your designers more ways to solve a problem and gain a comparative edge only of they know when, where and how to use it.