DoST-ITDI hosts Matdev Laboratory forum for additive manufacturing

THE Industrial Technology Development Institute (DoST-ITDI) gathered industry, academe, government, and non-profit organizations in a stakeholders’s forum on March 25 and presented the Matdev Laboratory’s current and future activities on additive manufacturing (AM).

AM is the technique being used by the Matdev Laboratory to produce models and prototypes directly from three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design (CAD) without using any tools or fixtures.

Funded by the DoST Grants-In-Aid Program, Matdev Laboratory is a project under the Advanced Additive Manufacturing R&D Program.

Inaugurated on Dec. 22, 2020, the Matdev Laboratory undertakes research and development on materials for use in additive manufactured products to reduce the cost of raw materials by using local resources.

However, AM has been in use since the 1980s with Hideo Kodama of the Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute inventing two AM photopolymer rapid prototyping systems in 1981.

Today, the AM process of making a product by adding successive layers of material is now often referred to as 3D printing.

Compared with traditional production methods or subtractive manufacturing.

AM ensures continual availability of spare parts, which is particularly useful in asset-heavy industries such as aerospace, automotive, and medical. In some countries, the use of AM is widespread in machineries like turbines, handling and robotics, lifestyle and sports like jewelry and biking, and custom parts of classic cars.