Quick Summary
Additional Context
The US additive manufacturing (AM) industry faces a turning point in terms of its approach to R&D. As has been the case for aggregate R&D in the US economy at least since World War II (especially when it comes to manufacturing activity), the AM industry seems overly dependent on money from the US military and the broader defense sector in funding its innovation.
On the other hand, there are enough examples of AM companies creating R&D partnerships with applicability beyond defense to instill confidence that the industry as a whole can diversify its R&D approach going forward. The idea shouldn’t be to abandon research into military applications, but rather to supplement that research with the development of synergistic use-cases for commercial markets. Partnerships with universities are a