Consumers want products that work for their lifestyles. Runners want lighter running shoes, and this means using lighter materials. Gamers want seamless, lifelike experiences, and this means systems with faster and more intelligent processors. Drivers want vehicles that make commuting easier, even going as far as wanting cars that drive themselves. All consumers want products that work well, and they want them now, and it's up to manufacturers to meet these demands.

3D printing can help meet the increasing customer demand for new products by reducing design-to-production times. With Formlabs 3L, people can create their designs and develop them into ideas using CAD software. They then send these designs to be 3D printed to build functional prototypes. Afterward, engineers and designers can use these printed models to evaluate the design and test features, depending on their desired purpose. This process takes just days to complete, compared to traditional processes, which could take weeks.

Aerospace companies are always looking for ways to save weight on their aeroplanes. Every ounce saved means more weight is available for passengers or cargo. But it's crucial to maintain the strength and integrity of the aircraft. Designers often use complex matrix designs to achieve this. These parts are difficult to produce with traditional machining techniques. Since Formlabs 3 or even their Formlabs Form 2 are designed for manufacturing and engineering purposes, it can create complex parts easily. 

Ordering a faulty prototype can cost designers a great amount of time and money. Even those small changes in a mould or in the fabrication method may have a large financial impact.

Verifying a design by printing a production-ready prototype before investing in expensive manufacturing equipment (e.g., moulds or tooling and jigs) eliminates the risk or errors during the prototyping process. Using a 3D printer like Formlabs 3, people can design first without investing tons of capital while waiting for approval before producing. This mitigates capital risk, especially for businesses with insufficient funds. 

The restrictions imposed by traditional manufacturing on what can be made are generally not relevant for additive manufacturing. Since components are typically constructed one layer at a time, design requirements such as draft angles, undercuts, and tool access do not apply when designing parts to be 3D printed

While there are some restrictions on the minimum size features that can be accurately printed, most of the limitations of additive manufacturing centre around optimally orientating a print to reduce support dependency and the likelihood of print failure. With Formlabs 3d printers, people have freedom on the complexity of design without any limitations. 

Continuous prototyping and manufacturing in-house with a 3D printer ensure that designs never leave the company premises, safeguarding your intellectual property. 3D printers are secured that even third parties can't copy any designs easily. Every innovative design is kept in-house, so there is no need to worry about it being misused or without your proper consent.

Understanding whether a product will succeed requires much research, especially where traditional manufacturing methods are concerned. However, creating a prototype through 3D printing will make it possible for businesses to obtain feedback from potential buyers and investors in a way that could never be achieved before. Using Formlabs Form 3 or even Formlabs Form 2, designers can modify their designs quickly and easily, which traditional methods can't provide. This means 3D printing provides a unique and valuable way of identifying whether a product has the potential to make it to market and be successful at the same time.

The traditional manufacturing process is mostly a subtractive process, where the raw material gets wasted and reused repeatedly. As a result, when companies use traditional methods,  the cost and waste are higher than 3D printers. An advantage of 3D printing is the unique way it builds the product with very little waste, called additive manufacturing. While traditional methods will have waste that can be reused or recycled, it still takes time and effort to determine just how and when the waste will be used. This makes 3D printing a very sustainable option.

3D printers like Formlabs Form 3 have become famous because of the ease and convenience they provide. When it comes to developing product prototypes or producing customised and complex parts, using a 3D printer is a wise choice. This new approach to development has significantly disrupted the industrial and manufacturing industries. And with its several benefits, companies, even micro ones,  will rely on these printers rather than stick to traditional methods.