Additive Manufacturing UK (AMUK)’s first Members Discussion board of 2025 was held at Siemens’ UK headquarters in South Manchester earlier this 12 months. The occasion featured shows from AMUK members and supplied attendees an opportunity to community and share insights.
Forward of the day-long meetup, 3D Printing Trade caught up with Joshua Dugdale, Head of AMUK, to study extra concerning the present state of additive manufacturing and the way forward for 3D printing in Britain.
AMUK is the UK’s major 3D printing commerce group. Established in 2014, it operates inside the Manufacturing Applied sciences Affiliation (MTA) cluster. Attendees at this 12 months’s first meetup spanned the UK’s complete 3D printing ecosystem. Highlights included dialogue on valuable supplies from Cookson Industrial, simulation software program from Siemens, digital thread options from Kaizen PLM, and 3D printing providers offered by ARRK.
With a background in mechanical engineering, Dugdale is “liable for all the things and something AMUK does as a corporation.” Based on the Loughborough College alumnus, who can also be Head of Expertise and Expertise on the MTA, AMUK’s core mission is to “create an setting within the UK the place additive manufacturing can thrive.” He elaborated on how his group is working to extend the industrial success of its members inside the “struggling” world manufacturing setting.
Dugdale shared his perspective on the important thing challenges going through 3D printing within the UK. He pointed to a “robust” working setting hampered by world monetary challenges, which is delaying investments.
Regardless of this, AMUK’s chief stays optimistic concerning the sector’s long-term potential, highlighting the UK’s success in R&D and annual 3D printing mental property (IP) output. Dugdale emphasised the worth of 3D printing for UK protection and provide chain resilience, arguing that “protection will cleared the path” in 3D printing innovation.
Trying forward, Dugdale known as on the UK Authorities to create a unified 3D printing roadmap to exchange its “disjointed” method to coverage and funding. He additionally shared AMUK’s technique for 2025 and past, emphasizing a deal with eductaion, provide chain visibility, and requirements. Finally, the AMUK figurehead shared a constructive outlook on the way forward for 3D printing within the UK. He envisions a brand new wave of innovation that can see extra British startups and college spinouts rising over the subsequent 5 years.
What’s the present state of additive manufacturing within the UK?
Based on Dugdale, the 3D printing business is experiencing a difficult interval, pushed largely by world financial pressures. “I wouldn’t describe it as underperforming, I’d describe it as flat,” Dugdale mentioned. “The manufacturing sector as a complete is going through vital challenges, and additive manufacturing is not any exception.” He pointed to elevated competitors, a cautious funding local weather, and the reluctance of companies to undertake new applied sciences because of the financial uncertainty.
Dugdale particularly highlighted the rise within the UK’s Nationwide Insurance coverage contribution (NIC) fee for employers, which rose from 13.8% to fifteen% on April 6, 2025. He famous that many British firms postponed funding selections forward of the announcement, reflecting rising warning inside the UK manufacturing sector. “With additive manufacturing, folks must be keen to take dangers,” added Dugdale. “Persons are holding off in the meanwhile as a result of the present local weather doesn’t favor danger.”
Dugdale stays optimistic concerning the sector’s long-term potential, arguing that the UK continues to excel in academia and R&D. Nonetheless, for Dugdale, commercializing that analysis is the place the nation should enhance earlier than it may stand out on the world stage. This turns into particularly clear when in comparison with nations in North America and Asia, which obtain considerably higher monetary help. “We’re by no means going to compete with the US and China, as a result of they’ve a lot extra money behind them,” he defined.
In a European context, Dugdale believes the UK “is doing fairly properly.” Nonetheless, Britain stays under Spain by way of monetary backing and expertise adoption. “Spain has a way more mature business,” Dugdale defined. “Their AM affiliation has been going for 10 years, and it’s clear that their business is extra cohesive and additional alongside. It’s a stage of professionalism we are able to study from.” Whereas the Iberian nation faces comparable challenges in requirements, provide chain, and visibility, it advantages from a stage of cohesion that units it aside from many different European nations.
Dugdale pointed to the Formnext commerce present as a transparent instance of this disparity. He expects the Spanish pavilion to span round 200 sq. meters and have ten firms at this 12 months’s occasion, a “large” distinction in comparison with the UK’s 36 sq. meters final 12 months. AMUK’s presence might develop to round 70 sq. meters at Formnext 2025, however this nonetheless lags far behind. Dugdale attributes this hole to authorities help. “They get extra funding. This makes it much more engaging for firms to return as a result of there’s much less danger for them,” he defined.
3D printing for UK Protection
As world safety considerations develop, the UK authorities has intensified efforts to bolster its protection capabilities. On this context, 3D printing is rising as a key enabler. Earlier this 12 months, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) launched its first Defence Superior Manufacturing Technique, outlining a plan to “embrace 3D printing,” with additive manufacturing anticipated to play a pivotal position in the UK’s future navy operations.
Dugdale recognized two key benefits of additive manufacturing for protection: provide chain resilience and frontline manufacturing. For the previous, he pressured the significance of constructing localized provide chains to cut back lead instances and eradicate dependence on abroad shipments. This functionality is essential for guaranteeing that navy platforms, whether or not on land, at sea, or within the air, stay operational.
3D printing close to the entrance strains presents benefits for conducting fast repairs and sustaining warfighting capabilities within the subject. “If a tank must get again off the battlefield, you possibly can print a widget or bracket that’ll maintain for simply 5 miles,” Dugdale defined. “It’s not about good engineering; it’s about getting the automobile residence.”
The British Military has already adopted containerized 3D printers to check additive manufacturing close to the entrance strains. Final 12 months, British troops deployed steel and polymer 3D printers throughout Train Steadfast Defender, NATO’s largest navy train because the Chilly Battle. Dubbed Challenge Bokkr, the additive manufacturing capabilities included XSPEE3D chilly spray 3D printer from Australian agency SPEE3D.
Elsewhere in 2024, the British Military participated in Additive Manufacturing Village 2024, a navy showcase organized by the European Defence Company. Through the occasion, UK personnel 3D printed 133 purposeful elements, together with 20 constructed from steel. In addition they developed technical information packs (TDPs) for 70 totally different 3D printable spare elements. The intention was to equip Ukrainian troops with the aptitude to 3D print navy gear immediately on the level of want.
Dugdale believes success within the UK protection sector will assist drive wider adoption of 3D printing. “Protection will cleared the path,” he mentioned, suggesting that navy customers will construct the data base crucial for broader civilian adoption. This might additionally spur innovation in supplies science, an space Dugdale expects to see vital developments within the coming years.
Advocating for a “unified industrial technique”
Regardless of promising development in defence, Dugdale recognized main hurdles that also hinder the widespread adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) within the UK.
A key problem lies within the vital data hole surrounding the varied kinds of AM and their distinctive benefits. This hole, he famous, discourages professionals acquainted with conventional manufacturing strategies like milling and turning from embracing 3D printing. “FDM is just not the identical as WAAM,” added Dugdale. “Attempting to clarify that in a really good, coherent story is just not all the time straightforward.”
Dugdale additionally raised considerations concerning the business’s fragmented nature, particularly in terms of software program compatibility and the dearth of interoperability between 3D printing techniques. “The software program is commonly closed, and totally different machines don’t all the time talk properly with one another. That may create concern about locking into the improper ecosystem too early,” he defined.
For Dugdale, these boundaries can solely be overcome with a transparent industrial technique for additive manufacturing. He believes the UK Authorities ought to develop a unified technique that defines a transparent roadmap for growth. This, Dugdale argued, would allow business gamers to align their efforts and investments.
The UK has invested over £500 million in AM-related initiatives over the previous decade. Nonetheless, Dugdale defined that fragmented funding has restricted its influence. As a substitute, the AMUK Chief argues that the UK Authorities’s technique ought to acknowledge AM as one in all “a number of key enabling applied sciences,” alongside machine tooling, metrology, and different essential manufacturing instruments.
He believes this unified method might considerably increase the UK’s productiveness and absolutely combine 3D printing into the broader industrial panorama. “Corporations will align themselves with the roadmap, permitting them to develop and mature on the similar fee,” Dugdale added. “This can assist us to make smarter selections about how we fund and the place we fund.”
AMUK’s roadmap and the way forward for 3D printing within the UK
When forecasting 3D printing market efficiency, Dugdale and his staff observe 5 key industries: automotive, aerospace, medical, steel items, and chemical processes. Based on Dugdale, these industries are the first customers of machine instruments, which makes them essential indicators of market well being.
AMUK additionally depends on 3D printing business surveys to gauge confidence, serving to them to identify tendencies even when granular information is scarce. By evaluating sector efficiency with survey-based confidence indicators, AMUK builds insights into the long run market trajectory. The robust efficiency of sectors like aerospace and healthcare, which rely closely on 3D printing, reinforces Dugdale’s confidence within the long-term potential of additive manufacturing.
Looking forward to the second half of 2025, AMUK plans to deal with three major challenges: provide chain visibility, expertise growth, and requirements. Dugdale explains that these points stay central to the maturation of the UK’s AM ecosystem. Schooling will play a key position in these efforts.
AMUK is already operating a number of additive manufacturing upskilling initiatives in faculties and universities to construct the subsequent era of 3D printing pioneers. These embody pilot initiatives that introduce 3D printing to Key Stage 3 college students (aged 11) and AM college programs which might be tailor-made to business wants.
In the long term, Dugdale suggests AMUK might evolve to focus extra on addressing particular business challenges, similar to net-zero emissions or automotive light-weighting. This is able to contain creating specialised working teams that concentrate on how 3D printing can tackle particular urgent points.
Curiously, Dugdale revealed that AMUK’s success in advancing the UK’s 3D printing business might ultimately result in the group being dissolved and reabsorbed into the MTA. This consequence, he defined, would sign that “additive manufacturing has actually matured” and is now seen as an integral a part of the broader manufacturing ecosystem, fairly than a distinct segment expertise.
Finally, Dugdale is optimistic for the way forward for 3D printing within the UK. He acknowledged that AMUK continues to be “making an attempt to play catch-up for the final 100 years of machine software expertise.” Nonetheless, additive manufacturing improvements are set to speed up. “There’s plenty of thrilling analysis occurring in universities, and we have to discover methods to assist these initiatives acquire the funding and visibility they want,” Dugdale urged.
Because the expertise continues to develop, Dugdale believes additive manufacturing will step by step lose its area of interest standing and change into a normal software for producers. “In ten years, we might see a era of employees who grew up with 3D printers at residence,” he instructed me. “For them, it can simply be one other expertise to make use of within the office, not one thing to be amazed by.”
With this future in thoughts, Dugdale’s imaginative and prescient for 3D printing is one in all broad adoption, supported by clear technique and coverage, because the expertise continues to evolve and combine into UK business.
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