EDITORIAL | 3D PRINTING: IS IT TIME TO INVEST?
CAN THE AFRICAN FUTURE BE 3D PRINTED?
“It can, but it is not there yet!” says Rees, a sentiment that is shared by
Malika Khodja, senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria. “Industrial
AM offers tremendous cost savings on the African continent however, it is essential to understand what
technology to deploy – education
is key,” emphasises Khodja who is also the co-founder of TiziriTech that specialises in consulting to
corporates to derive benefits from
AM. Khodja is also the Africa chair of the international Women in 3D
Printing organisation in South Africa
which supports women in 3D printing. Khodja together with Rees wish
to further grow a vibrant industrial
3D printing eco-system that would
give more job opportunities to local citizens, especially women.
But 3D printing is not only for the big industrial firms or university research labs. Stephan Kotze has pioneered manufacturing of FDM filaments in South Africa since 2014 from very humble beginnings and now his
company (The Filament Factory) is the leading producer of filaments in the country. Even this space is growing
and an additional five different filament manufacturers have opened their
doors in the past two years. “South
Africa can become a global leader in
niche manufacturing, specifically in low production quality goods as we have
top engineering skills and we can get
to market very quickly thanks to AM,” emphasis Kotze.
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Denislav Marinov is combining his passion for technology and social justice to bring 3D printers into every school across the country. Photo Source: https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2019-03-13-students-3d-printer-plan-to-change-education
This has been demonstrated by an
can drastically reduce production
Marinov, a UCT graduate who has
offers a variety of unique challenges
upcoming young entrepreneur Denislav successfully started a 3D printing
company Amnova Tech that specialised in hybrid tech. Their first successful product with offtake from the U.S. is the Big Brother V1.1 boasting a
large volume 3D printer with other technologies like CNC machining,
plasma cutting and laser engraving. Africa has leapfrogged several
industries in the past because of its unique localisation problems.
3D printing is another technology that can help Africa to solve its
hyperlocal issues. 3D printing in
construction can address housing shortage. Having the opportunity to 3D print critical spares in light
manufacturing in remote locations
downtime. The agricultural sector
linked to shortage of equipment and
pushing existing equipment “beyond its lifetime” that can be achieved
thanks to 3D printing. And let’s not forget the vast opportunity when it
comes to enabling youth to start 3D
printing ventures by having the ability to localise manufacturing. While the
opportunities are large and potentially transformative, the challenges
to making technologies like this
broadly available are significant,
and will require the coming together of society, private sector and
government with a shared vision of an exponential future. The future in
Africa can indeed be 3D printed, but it is not automatic, we need to do a lot of work to get there!