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Materials Informatics Can Revolutionize the 3D Printing Market, Reveals IDTechEx
One of the key barriers to adoption across the field has been the range of materials available and their properties. Designers are used to having a huge range of materials to choose from, and having that selection dramatically shrunk has hindered the market impact. Materials still need to be engineered for each printing process and application, for which the race is on.
Materials informatics (MI) is one of the most exciting areas in materials science. Primarily, MI is based on using data infrastructures and leveraging machine learning solutions for the design of new materials, the discovery of materials for a given application, and/or the optimization of how they are processed. MI can accelerate the "forward" direction of innovation (properties are realized for an input material), but the idealized solution is to enable the "inverse" direction (materials are designed given desired properties or processing criteria). This is not straight-forward and is still at a nascent stage. In many cases, the data infrastructure is not comprehensive, and MI algorithms are often too immature for the given experimental data. The challenge is not the same as in other AI-led areas (such as autonomous cars or social media), the players are often dealing with sparse, high-dimensional, biased, and noisy data; leveraging domain knowledge is an essential part of most approaches.
IDTechEx has covered this topic in detail, and more information on the technology, players, and application areas can be found in the market report.
3D printing has presented an obvious target for the use of materials informatics and is already producing some very promising results. This article will highlight some of the key case studies in this field.
are one of the most notable companies offering materials informatics products and services. They cite additive manufacturing as a notable area and, in one noteworthy example, worked with HRL Laboratories to develop an aluminum alloy optimized for 3D printing that was certified by the Aluminium Association. Using MI was reported to rapidly improve this development and time to market.
are another exciting MI player and have also been active in metal alloys for additive manufacturing. They have carried out several notable projects, including one with GKN and another with Boeing & AMRC. In early 2021, the company announced a key partnership with Ansys merging them for the complete additive manufacturing workflow.
It is not all about metals, in fact one of the first major areas for nearly all MI companies has been in chemical formulations.
are a young company that incorporates statistical expertise to the design of experiment (DoE) software. The company entered the scene by winning the Formnext star-up challenge in 2019 and started with SLM processes. This has now led them to develop appropriate resins for SLA with notable chemical companies and other work with 3D printer manufacturers.
This concept is not overly new, it is just rapidly expanding with the improvements in AI-driven solutions, expanding data infrastructures, and better awareness/education within the community. The only business model is also not to be a SaaS provider or carry out research projects. Another approach can be to develop and demonstrate a material in-house before licensing this. There are multiple exciting companies doing both this and research projects. are one such player pioneering their longstanding integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach for a range of alloys, including those for additive manufacturing. There are also younger companies, including (formerly OxMet Technologies), , and more, pursuing this alternative business model. OxMet Technologies previously specialized in nickel alloys and received investment from JX Nippon Mining & Metals, Alloyed have recently entered into a partnership with TANIOBIS (a subsidiary of JX Nippon Mining & Metals); meanwhile, Phaseshift are focused on bringing amorphous alloys to market.
As is the mantra of the 21 century, data is king, and materials design for 3D printing is proving to be no exception. Building libraries for 3D printing materials and rapidly accelerating their production and development is a key emerging area. Materials informatics is a necessary catalyst to the 3D printing market.
For more information, see the IDTechEx market reports "3D Printed Materials Market 2020-2030: COVID Edition", "Metal Additive Manufacturing 2020-2030" and "Materials Informatics 2020-2030".
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