Abstract

This research aims at understanding what additive manufacturing means to a community and its impact on the sustainability and growth of value creation in the international pandemic breakout context.The objectives of this research are to monitor the public awareness of 3D printing before and after pandemic period, verifying the rise of demand on 3D printing and determining the possibility of 3D printing growth as local production hubs.

In this research, a quantitative method was adopted through a survey designed to collect data from participants all over the world  to search the possibility of increasing the demand on 3D printing as a result of the current global responses towards the Covid-19 Pandemic.Participants had been 

This research has been analysed using quantitative analysis to identify themes and categories based on the responses of the participants.

The findings of this research provide various factors that affect the rise of distributed additive manufacturing within the turbulent external environment. It has been recommended that organisations, companies and educational institutes take part of this rise of awareness toward 3D printing.

The outcome of the information available through this survey results can clearly indicate that a new awareness has been created about the importance of 3D printing technology as a productive and distributive technology, where local production and distribution hotspots has been created during the pandemic breakout time, due to the cutout of global supply chains from their origin as a result of severe pandemic conditions and the lock-down of most countries in the world.

The real way to benefit from this outcome is in the hands of local start-up companies, big industries and educational institutions that are interested in the fields of additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies. Where the industry will undergo a rapid transformation, with more to come in the future.

The impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on the rise of distributed Additive manufacturing for productivity is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed at Master in Robotics and Advanced Construction in 2019 by:
Student: Abdelrahman Koura
Faculty: Mathilde Marengo