Solving the Challenges Holding Additive Manufacturing Back

The future of additive manufacturing depends on more than technology. From simulation tools and certification frameworks to process development and qualification, many of the industry’s biggest challenges require a collaborative approach. Dr Daniel East shares why solving these foundational barriers together is key to unlocking broader industrial adoption.

Many of additive manufacturing’s biggest opportunities are also its most difficult challenges.

Advanced simulation tools, process qualification frameworks, new materials and certification pathways all have the potential to accelerate industrial adoption of additive manufacturing. Yet developing these capabilities often requires resources, expertise and investment beyond the reach of a single organisation.

For Dr Daniel East, Research Program Lead for AMCRC’s Technology and Process Development Program and CSIRO Group Leader Advanced Manufacturing and Metals, this is where collaborative research can have the greatest impact.

“Everybody wants to use simulation and modelling and digital tools, but they’re quite expensive to develop or they’re quite involved to develop,” he said.

“So, it does require a collaboration of companies or people to come together to build these tools, or a very large company.”

Through AMCRC’s Technology and Process Development Program, East works closely with industry and researchers to address technical barriers that continue to limit in additive manufacturing adoption. The program focuses on advancing simulation tools, process development, process monitoring, quality assurance, qualification and certification, helping manufacturers build confidence in additive manufacturing technologies and processes.

But according to East, the challenge is not always technical.

“The challenge that we’re going to have moving forward is that individual companies see these problems as competitive advantages if they can solve them individually,” said East.

“We have to break down that barrier of these being pre-competitive, baseline problems that everybody needs to solve, not competitive advantage issues that one particular company can solve alone.”

This challenge is emerging across many sectors adopting additive manufacturing.

In construction-scale 3D printing, for example, companies are grappling with many of the same questions around concrete formulations, process parameters and certification processes needed to satisfy building engineers and regulators. While solving these challenges could unlock significant opportunities, they are often too complex and costly for individual organisations to tackle alone.

For East, these are precisely the kinds of problems that collaborative research is designed to solve, bringing together organisations to share risk, combine expertise and develop solutions that benefit an entire sector.

From Manufacturing to Additive Manufacturing

East’s career has been shaped by a commitment to solving practical manufacturing problems.

After leaving northern Tasmania to study engineering at RMIT University, he joined CSIRO as a graduate engineer and never looked back.

“I took the first job that I got when I graduated, and that was CSIRO. And I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

Originally specialising in metallurgy, casting and microstructure development, East’s career pivoted towards additive manufacturing as Australia’s automotive manufacturing sector evolved.

“I took my expertise in solidification and microstructure development, and instead of applying that to casting, I applied it to additive manufacturing,” he recalled.

“It’s the same thing, basically, on smaller scales with additive.”

Today, East leads CSIRO’s renowned Lab 22, one of Australia’s leading additive manufacturing facilities. Over more than a decade, the facility has evolved from a “try-before-you-buy” resource for SMEs into a centre for advanced materials and process development.

His research has spanned some of manufacturing’s most ambitious frontiers, from materials capable of withstanding hypersonic flight to technologies for space-based manufacturing, and even the possibility of producing components using resources sourced on other planets.

Yet, regardless of the application, his focus has remained unchanged.

“The constant has been applied research, particularly with an industrial client in mind,” he said.

Creating Impact That Endures

For East, the true measure of research success is not the technology itself, but the long-term impact it creates for industry.

One of his earliest projects at CSIRO focused on developing alloys and manufacturing processes for Tasmanian automotive component manufacturer ACL Bearing Company, which was facing an uncertain future at the time.

More than two decades later, the company is still operating.

“They survived and they’re still going now, even with the shutdown of the Australian automotive industry. They now sell to the secondary market and export,” East said.

The experience remains a powerful reminder of why industry-led research matters.

“When I go visit my parents, I still drive past that factory and it’s still there,  showing that innovative companies can survive in difficult business environments. I like to think I played a small part in that company’s success.”

For East, that enduring impact is what collaborative research is ultimately about.

By bringing together manufacturers, researchers and technology providers to tackle challenges that no single organisation can solve alone, AMCRC is helping build the knowledge, capability and confidence needed to accelerate additive manufacturing adoption. The technologies may evolve, but the objective remains the same: delivering practical solutions that strengthen Australian manufacturing for the long term.