Michael UngarCEO of the Industry 4.0 Club

3D Printing Revolutionizes Manufacturing: Thousands of Parts Faster!

18 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, the speaker argues that additive manufacturing will become a transformative force in manufacturing over the next few years by enabling 3D‑printed mold inserts made from high‑temperature plastics. Instead of machining entire molds, manufacturers can insert 3D‑printed components into standard molds, achieving economies of scale previously reserved for hundreds of thousands of units at production runs as low as 3,000–4,000 units. This approach promises to change how low‑volume parts are produced, making 3D printing a viable alternative for many manufacturers.

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The challenge, of course, is that not everybody is building millions or tens of thousands of different parts. Parts, yeah. So the question is, can additive play a role? And this is where I think over the next couple of years, this is gonna be one of the most transformative things in terms of manufacturing, which is, I think, the idea of printing mold inserts, because you can use high-temperature plastics to go and actually, instead of machining the mold, you can take standard molds put an insert in that's been 3D printed with high-temperature plastic material and be able to take the economies of scale that would only be accomplished with hundreds of thousands of units and be able to do it for 3,000, 4,000 units. And that's going to change how and what people do in terms of manufacturing.