Investments aimed toward adding speed, precision and capacity will allow 3D printers to create more complex products in larger volumes, according to a report.

The market for 3D printers, which build physical representations of digital models using additive manufacturing techniques or manipulating lasers to bind materials, used to be quite small because the printers were primarily used for rudimentary prototyping.

However, new applications are continually appearing, and prices are dropping commensurate with demand, said the Accenture report.

The US Department of Energy and machine tool manufacturer Cincinnati recently announced a partnership to create a 3D printer 200 to 500 times faster and 10 times larger than most current printers.

Moreover, several patents for technologies such as laser sintering will expire soon, spurring additional innovation. Printers also are being combined with traditional subtractive manufacturing tools to produce metal parts that rival or surpass the quality of older techniques. Many of these can be produced with less material and in various weight-saving shapes. General Electric, for instance, is “printing” jet engine brackets that weigh 84 percent less than their predecessors, it said.

There are three particular areas in which 3D printing is becoming synonymous with viable opportunities to re-grade the manufacturing playing field, as it helps drive the digital-physical blur:
* Rapid prototyping and mass customisation; Although not (yet) suited to high-volume production, 3D printing will change the economies of small-run manufacturing because no special molds, jigs or other tools are needed to produce a product.
* New ecosystems for accommodating the digital nature of 3D printing: Taking full advantage of these innovations can require a largely new “manufacturing digital ecosystem” that supports new ways to design and make products, and makes it possible to share design content so that satellite businesses, third parties and even customers can produce items themselves.
* New angles to driving operational excellence: Operating a facility stocked with digital printers instead of parts -- accompanied by a digital system that receives and stores model files -- could give companies economical, fingertip access to a huge variety of parts that are created only as needed.

Today, 3D printing occupies the same kind of theoretical space as computers, smartphones and the Internet did in the latter half of the 20th century: A base set of early applications and proof cases, and a seemingly unlimited list of future opportunities, many of which likely have not yet even been contemplated, Accenture report said.

"Of course, the inspiration is easy compared to the perspiration: What ideas are actually viable? What considerations are essential? What initiatives most deserve scrutiny? What level of strategic and operational reengineering is required? This is where in-depth expertise, diligent study and hard work come in," it said.

It adds: "A simple yet effective thought process can guide companies’ preliminary explorations of 3D printing and digital supply networks. The thought process includes asking whether the technology you’re contemplating help the organisation become more connected, intelligent, scalable and/or rapid?"