After years of hype, additive manufacturing techniques that build products layer by layer are starting to become more commonplace in shop-floor production, as well as in the design office. They are already producing a step change in the way certain customised products are made, for example, medical implants and bespoke aerospace components. However, 3D printing remains largely separate from conventional subtractive machining and, as a result, a long way from becoming part of automated assembly lines. Part of what's holding additive techniques back is the historical tendency for them to be enclosed in their own 3D-printer boxes, according to Dr Jason Jones, co-founder of Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies (HMT). The best way of creating a product might involve both additive and subtractive manufacturing and this might mean moving it from a milling machine to a 3D printer and perhaps back again to finish the additive surface. But HMT has commercialised a technology that combines the two approaches in one set-up.
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