Additive manufacturing with metal is moving into a new era where it will be deployed for production parts and “mass customization,” the head of Desktop Metal said today.

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Metal printing “is still in its early days,” Ric Fulop, the company’s CEO and co-founder, said during an address at SME’s CMTS event outside of Toronto. “Think of it as aviation in the 1920s.”

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3D printing with metal will enable design of new, more complicated shapes, he said. Metal printing will result in fewer parts made. Currently, he said, “We make products out of many, many parts today because it is easy to assemble them. With additive, can print the entire component.” What’s more, Fulop said, metal printing will “make components 30 to 50 percent lighter. We will be able to mass customize.” Burlington, Mass.-based Desktop Metal’s investors include automakers Ford Motor Co. and BMW AG. Desktop Metal […]

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