This article by AM Chronicle covers the key highlights of the National Strategy of Additive Manufacturing and provides information about the critical points in the policy.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India launched launched the National Strategy on Additive Manufacturing (NSAM), focusing on India’s growing 3D printing market on 24th February 2022. The policy aims to advance the manufacturing sector, research and development, and new product development centered around additive manufacturing.
Vision, Mission, and Objectives
The vision of the NSAM is to promote “Make In India” and make India self-reliant in the area of manufacturing. The goal of NSAM is to make India a global center of additive manufacturing with a focus on creating and protecting intellectual property.
The mission aims to create a sustainable ecosystem in which additive manufacturing businesses grow and provide knowledge and skill to different companies to adopt additive manufacturing to encourage innovation.
The key objective is to grow man, machine, and software related to additive manufacturing and develop local skills, technology, and scales India’s existing additive manufacturing outputs. The principal is to create long-term economic viability and technology leadership of additive manufacturing in India.
Strategy Outputs
The key output is to gain 5% of the global market share in additive manufacturing and generate one billion dollars in India through additive manufacturing. It also aims to develop India-specific technologies, new startups, new products, and a skilled workforce in additive manufacturing.
The NSAM is also aimed to resolve the technical challenges around additive manufacturing. The key technical challenges are aimed to determine using the process of knowledge and ecosystem development.
The technical challenges that the policy will address include
- Properties of AM Material
- Material Availability
- AM Standards
- Surface Finish
- Volume and Speed of Printing
- Technology
- Process Monitoring
Global Market Trends
The global market trends of additive manufacturing are constantly growing, and the majority of the share is in the European and American markets. The NSAM aims to increase the market share of Indian companies in this regain and motivate the growth of 3D printed parts in India. Additionally, sustainable development is predicted in additive manufactured parts, software, and hardware. The NSAM aims to improve the share of Indian companies in the NSAM.
Industry Applications and Materials
With the help of additive manufacturing, the sectors that can be served are aerospace, automobile, electronics, healthcare, customer goods, and defense. Production of some parts is more profitable and easeful using AM in these sectors. The policy provides examples and uses concerning these six sectors where AM can play a critical role.
In aerospace, it aims at parts such as landing gear engine components, and in the automobile segment, it aims at engine control units and gearbox. Applications such as soft robots and wearable electronics can be produced with additive manufacturing. The healthcare application is aimed at surgical devices, implants, and dental applications. Parts such as toys, furniture, and jewelry can be produced through 3D printing in the consumer goods segments.
The NSAM aims to motivate Make In India through additive manufacturing of different parts and components in this sector.
The additive manufacturing process can develop a wide range of materials, but the essential materials highlighted in the policy are metals, ceramics, biomaterials, and plastics. The NSAM aims to improve 3D printed materials and develop innovative use of materials in India.
India and Additive Manufacturing
The key initiatives in India for the development of additive manufacturing were also highlighted in the policy. They were classified into two types, the first Government lead initiative and the second private initiative. The critical government initiatives include “Atal Innovation Mission,” Gujrat government collaboration with USA companies 3D technology, and OEM 3D Systems. Additive Manufacturing centers in IIT and other engineering colleges and Andhra Pradesh MechTech Zone for 3D printing.
The collaborative efforts include the collaboration of IISC Bangalore with Wipro 3D for metal 3D printing, HPs Collaboration with Center of Excellence AP, and NTTF foundation collaboration with Stratasys. Additionally, various research institutions are associated with the research and development of 3D printing technology. Some important institutions include IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad, RRCAT, and ARCI.
Challenges and Additive Manufacturing
The policy aims to solve critical challenges: cost of equipment and materials, lack of standards in additive manufacturing, lack of ecosystem, a foreign monopoly in business, lack of skilled workforce, domestic market translation, lack of clarity, and legal and ethical issues. The solution to these challenges will resolve the difficulties that resist the growth of additive manufacturing in India and provide a pathway for developing new products and technology. Moreover, the policy aims to provide a solution to some of the critical challenges of 3D printing that include ethical, legal, and business aspects such as human organ printing and the development of pharmaceutical drugs.
Conclusion
The NSAM is a much needed boost to provide motivation for the development of additive manufacturing in India. This step by the Government of India and is being seen with great positivity by both the research community and the industry at large. It aims to resolve the critical challenges which are hampering the growth of additive manufacturing in India and develop a roadmap that supports the growth in this segment and makes India a 3D Printing hub in the region. It will need immense effort by all the stakeholders including the government to implement this strategy and catch-up with the adoption of this technology in other region, however this is a surely a step in the right direction to ensure India reaches new heights in the AM sphere in the next decade.
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