NEW YORK, NY—A new study says that 3D printing is not eliminating the manufacturing technologies that came before, nor should it, reports 3Dprint.com. “Hybrid Manufacturing——Integrating Traditional Manufacturers With the Additive Manufacturing Supply Chain,” proposes the creation of a hybrid manufacturing supply chain that is based on metal additive manufacturing and uses scientific methods to identify the optimal locations for metal additive manufacturing hubs in the United States.

The study  recommends that:

>traditional manufacturing facilities integrate hybrid additive manufacturing with their current capabilities;

>traditional small and medium enterprises offer post-processing services;

>the capacity of current additive manufacturing hubs be increased, rather than new hubs be established at this time;

>CNC machining and injection molding can be enhanced, rather than eclipsed, by the addition of additive manufacturing.