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Rapid + TCT 2017
Rapid + TCT 2017: Moving towards affordability and accessibility at North America’s largest AM exhibition North America’s annual Rapid event has for 27 years been the region’s leading exhibition on Rapid Prototyping and Additive Manufacturing technologies. This year’s event, Rapid + TCT 2017, took place in Pittsburgh from May 8-11 and attracted a record 6,000 attendees from more than 45 countries. Metal AM magazine’s Emily-Jo Hopson attended the event and reports on a theme that is becoming ever more important to the industry as it looks towards new markets - affordability and accessibility.
In May this year Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine headed to the Rapid + TCT 2017 conference and exhibition, held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Taking place in the John Lawrence Convention Center, the event saw a 35% increase in attendees compared to the previous year, while the exhibitor count alone grew by 42% to 329 exhibiting companies - no doubt aided by a 124% increase in overall floorspace. The event also hosted a number of eminent speakers, among them America Makes’ Rob Gorham, GE’s Philippe Cochet and renowned industry analyst Terry Wohlers. Exhibiting on booth 951, the Metal AM magazine team was consistently impressed by the quality of visitors received, with both senior industry leaders and an array of newcomers to the technology stopping to talk. A common theme amongst many of those who spoke with us when picking up a copy of the magazine shared the same need; a gateway to understanding and adopting metal Additive Manufacturing into their processes. Those who approached us did so from varied
Vol. 3 No. 2 © 2017 Inovar Communications Ltd
engineering and product development backgrounds, recognising the advantages potentially offered by metal Additive Manufacturing over other materials and processes. Also encouraging was the number of student visitors on the Metal AM booth, from PhD candidates involved in high-level research projects with industry suppliers and producers to high school and undergraduate students seeking advice on career paths into AM.
In a panel discussion on new frontiers in metal 3D printing, Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal, stated, “In five to ten years, major universities will offer comprehensive courses on Design for Additive Manufacturing.” Philippe Cochet, GE’s Chief Productivity Officer, echoed this prediction with his statement in the keynote presentation, ‘Brilliant Factory: A new era of manufacturing’, that any fulfilment of AM’s potential for
Fig. 1 Terry Wohlers was among a number of eminent conference speakers
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