Groups advocate additive manufacturing for rapid industrial growth

The Additive Manufacturing Group (AMG), University of Lagos and the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) have called for the adoption of additive manufacturing in the country to achieve rapid industrial growth.

The groups stated this in a communiqué issued on the first bi-local International Conference on Additive Manufacturing (ICAM) in Nigeria signed by the Chairman, AMG, Prof. Funso Falade and Secretary, Dr. Lawrence Osoba.

The communiqué, which was publicly presented at the RMRDC House, Lagos, reiterated the use of additive manufacturing processes and its potential to significantly reduce the time and cost involved in tool production, noting that the necessary know-how is developed in case studies and passed to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within the framework of technology transfer.

The communiqué states that SMEs can significantly increase their competitiveness and achieve sustainable business success by using additive manufacturing technology.

According to the communiqué, additive manufacturing offers huge opportunities for rapid industrialisation of Nigeria in view of its innumerable potentials that can enable the country to leapfrog into the fourth Industrial revolution.

The communiqué stressed that additive manufacturing can also help solve increasing youth restiveness across the country due to its unique potentials for youth empowerment and wealth creation in recognition of its wide applications across all the manufacturing sectors.

“AM is a relatively new technology and therefore requires concerted efforts from both the public and private sectors of the economy in order to drive and sustain it to acceptable scale in the industrial and academic sectors,” the groups urged.

The communiqué resolved that there is a need for an inventory of all additive manufacturing technology practitioners and agencies in Nigeria, including academia working within the space to create awareness campaign across board with a view to showcasing the potentials through design competitions, selective hands-on workshops and increased cooperation amongst government, industry and academia for the purpose of harnessing the gains inherent in it to develop manufacturing in Nigeria.

“There is also a need to redesign the school curricula to accommodate AM 3D coursework including materials extrusion fundamentals and customisation process, replacement and/or supplement of traditional service processes and spare parts supply strategies by AM to achieve cost-efficiency in production of batch size on demand,” they added.

The communiqué also stated the need for RMRDC to serve as the focal point for the public sector in order to hasten the adoption and implementation of the right policy framework relating to additive manufacturing technology.

It maintained that RMRDC should spearhead policy thrust to promote and/or support efforts at domesticating available additive manufacturing researches, developments and infrastructure.