In today's modern manufacturing landscape, we are witnessing the combination of age-old metal stamping techniques with the novel disruptive technology of 3D printing. This combination—of a precision and an era—what we are calling in this article the "Fusion of Traditions and Innovations" is resulting in a transformative wave throughout the industry. Metal embossing, the era's most precise and versatile forming technology, is what can be most closely compared to a 3D printing revolution.
Metal stamping is a long-practiced, reliable method of shaping metal. It uses pressure and molds to get the job done, and it has always done this very well. It's served as a cornerstone across various industries and is nearly universal in the automotive and aerospace sectors. You can find it in the electronics and consumer goods sectors as well—all of these are home to products whose designs and build quality make them good candidates for metal stamping and for what metal stamping can do.
Amplifying Competencies through Integration: Metal stamping, a legacy fabrication process that is very good at making high-quantity, low-variability parts and at doing so in a nonlinear and low-cost manner, emerges altered, updated. Now it is customizable and capable of accommodating changes in a very short time without incurring significant costs. And that's thanks to 3D printing.
"Empowering Possibilities: A Revolution in Aerospace and More

Manufacturers get an unprecedented opportunity to produce structurally strong, yet incredibly lightweight, components of unmatched fuel efficiency and all-around performance in what is called "the aerospace industry." This is certainly rare. By an odd accident, this highly specialized industry has become the obvious showroom for a remarkable new fusion of possibilities.
Redefining Prototyping and Production: The Precision of Metal Stamping Meets the Design Freedom of 3D Printing

Combining the design freedom of 3D printing with the precision of metal stamping allows us to produce complex, high-quality metal parts that would be impossible to make otherwise. This is changing not just the way we think about prototyping and low-volume production—that is, the sorts of situations where 3D printing is already being used today—but also the kinds of 3D printing machines we build and how we operate them.
Promoting sustainability could hardly be more synergistic with the arts and crafts movement. Metal embossing and 3D printing are power allies in this initiative. They make it possible to rethink designs to use less material and to optimize those designs for their forms and functions. They are also serves us recyclably—both make their "products" from recyclable resources.
When industries come together, they create something more than the sum of their parts. That is also true for the powerful convergence of industry 4.0 and the additive manufacturing (AM) sector.

What is this potent partnership? Industry 4.0 leverages the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and intelligent data analysis to improve not only manufacturing but also the logistics, business intelligence, and supply chain components of the value creation process. Manufacturing is, of course, the core of the fourth industrial revolution. But its powers are also fully realized when it synergizes with the AM sector.
We are on the brink of a new possibilities era. This new possibility era is a convergence of metal embossing and 3D printing—a convergence that boasts increased production efficiency and precision, pushes the envelope with customization and unprecedented manufacturing creativity, and, in this age of climate consciousness, offers a more sustainable solution than many that have come before.