Sigma Labs Inc (SASI)

[HAWKS022]

From the article I just linked to: really like the last two paragraphs about contract printing and in quality processes, both fit into sigmas wheelhouse.

While there have been false dawns before for 3-D printing as a whole, companies cannot afford to be complacent. That will be especially true if the expected benefits to innovation are not only magnified by cost reductions but also bring into scope whole new industries and product categories. CEOs and COOs above all need to examine the readiness of their companies for a future in which a range of integrated digital technologies (of which 3-D could be one of the most significant) will dominate manufacturing and competitors will probably be building additive manufacturing into their value chains. That means focusing on better organizational cohesion and considering partnerships with external organizations (such as local contract-printing bureaus) that have the necessary technical expertise.

Beyond the C-suite, companies should build a group of executive champions within the engineering, quality, operations, and procurement units. Some aerospace and medical-device companies, for example, already have teams scanning their entire design portfolios for parts that could benefit from this technology. Furthermore, the introduction of 3-D printing into complex manufacturing environments would require big changes in quality-assurance and control processes: companies would have to replace old protocols relying on extensive up-front testing and validation of traditional production tools, such as molds. Since additive manufacturing reduces or even eliminates the need for these tools, organizations must understand the steps needed to satisfy their quality requirements in the future.