Quick Summary
Additional Context
Technology develops in response to forces driving change. That was the starting point for a keynote I presented with Mikael Schuisky at AM Meetup 2026, held in Karlstad, Sweden, on 16–17 September.
On Demand 2033, a Swedish initiative exploring how local, on-demand production of critical spare parts can strengthen industrial resilience, reduce supply-chain dependence, and support more sustainable production, organized the event.
We used the history of metal additive manufacturing to examine which industrial requirements shaped its development, then applied the same reasoning to the forces shaping PBF and DED today.
Rapid prototyping emerged during the 1980s and began to industrialize in the 1990s. Its first clear value was speed: engineers could move from a digital design to a physical