3D printing forecast for 2023: software and automation will become R&D priorities

Through the early 2020s most metal and polymer printers could already hold a bead and repeat a layer height. The weak point was everything around the build: slicing parameters tuned by trial and error, support structures that had to be cut off by hand, and a machine sitting idle while an operator finished the previous job. The 2023 3D printing forecast reflected that imbalance. Machine vendors and their customers started funding software teams, not just motion platforms.

Print simulation is the clearest example. A thermal distortion model runs before the build starts, predicts where the part will warp, and lets the engineer pre-compensate the geometry. On a 200 mm bracket that can remove two or three physical iterations. Each iteration on a metal printer costs machine time plus powder, so the payback on a simulation license is short.

The other half is scheduling and traceability. A print farm that mixes materials needs to know which spool, which parameter set and which operator produced a given part. That is a database problem, not a hardware problem. It is also the reason several printer makers bought or built MES software in this period.

None of this removes the physics. A printed part still carries layer lines, internal porosity and directional properties. Software makes the process repeatable. It does not make it isotropic.

The 2023 forecast also put robots next to the printer. Powder removal, depowdering, support cutting, surface blasting and inspection are the manual steps that keep a printer from running lights-out. A six-axis arm with a vacuum head and a camera can do the first three without an operator standing at the chamber door. That is where labor cost drops.

On the front end, automated powder handling and build-plate loading cut changeover time between jobs. If a machine can swap plates in minutes instead of an hour, the effective capacity of the same capital equipment rises. For a job shop this matters more than a faster laser.

The limit is part mix. Automated cells work well when the same family of parts repeats. Once every build is a different geometry, the robot needs new grippers, new fixtures and new programming, and the payback disappears. Most 2023 installations were in aerospace, dental and medical, where the part families are narrow.

We see the same logic on the subtractive side. Our 16 simultaneous 5-axis machining centers and 16 mill-turn centers run lights-out shifts because the fixtures and programs repeat. Automation pays when the work repeats, whatever the process.

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  Repetition firstAutomate a part family, not a single job.
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  Pre-processing is half the winPowder handling and plate loading set the cycle time.
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  Inspection closes the loopIn-line metrology is what makes unattended running safe.

Printing wins on internal channels, lattice or gyroid infill, and shapes that a cutter cannot reach. A conformal cooling channel inside a mold insert is a classic case: no end mill can cut a helical passage through solid steel, but a printer builds it layer by layer. Lightweight brackets with organic ribs follow the same rule.

Printing also wins on low-volume complexity. Ten identical parts with five internal features each are often cheaper printed than machined, because the setup cost is amortized across the build plate rather than across five separate fixtures.

CNC wins when you need a solid, fully dense part with a tight tolerance and a known grain structure. A printed aluminum part typically needs a stress relief and a finish pass on the critical faces anyway, at which point you have paid for two processes. If the geometry is prismatic, the mill is faster and cheaper from the first piece.

CNC also wins on surface finish and on materials. We machine 6061-T6, 7075, 17-4PH, Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel to ±0.005 mm with finishes down to Ra 0.2–0.8 μm. Printed equivalents of those alloys exist, but the property set is different and the post-processing is longer.

The honest answer for most programs is a split. Print the prototype to check fit and flow, machine the production parts, and keep the printed version as a fixture or a soft jaw. That is how we quote it.

When simulation and automation improve, the cost curve for printing flattens at low volume. Fewer failed builds, less manual labor, shorter changeover. That moves the crossover point between printing and machining, but it does not erase it. Powder cost, inert gas, and post-processing labor are still there.

For a buyer, the practical effect is that printed prototypes arrive faster and more predictably than they did a few years ago. That changes the front end of a program, not the back end. Production volumes still land on subtractive processes for most metal parts.

Our quoting reflects that. We return a quotation and a free DFM analysis within 12 hours, and production can start within 24 hours. If the DFM notes say a feature should be printed rather than milled, we say so before the tool is loaded.

We hold ISO 9001:2015, IATF 16949:2016, ISO 13485:2016 and ISO 27001:2022. Parts get a raw material check, in-process monitoring and 100% inspection before shipment, with reports on request. That applies to printed and machined parts alike.