In May 2024, a rocket Agnibaan – SOrTed lifted off from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh featuring a single-piece, Additive Manufacturing (AM) printed semi-cryogenic engine rocket engine. The event demonstrated the country’s competitive advancement of technology usage to become a major builder. The National Strategy for Additive Manufacturing (NSAM) is helping more such start-ups in their R&D for development of critical engine parts using AM.
Nearly 2,000 kilometres away in the city of Ahmedabad, the Indian Army has a two-storey dwelling unit that was also printed by a machine. The Army has since used the same method in the Union Territory of Ladakh to produce precast defences.
A rocket engine and a soldier’s home look nothing alike. Both came from the same idea that is AM or 3D printing. AM is a process of creating an object by building it from layer to layer, something that is opposite of subtractive manufacturing.
AM starts with a design wherein software cuts the design into hundreds or thousands of thin layers. The machine then reads each layer and builds the object, one layer on top of another.
More than 40 such processes exist in the market or in research labs. They work with plastics, metals, ceramics and materials meant for the human body. Researchers are even testing the printing of tissue from living cells.
Why AM
For over a decade India has shown it can build systems at scale in the digital world. The next step is to do the same with physical goods.
A design file can travel anywhere in seconds, and a printer can turn it into a part in a town far from any large factory. That means less waiting for imports and more making at home.
The early results are already visible.
A construction printer, the Kelvin 6K Pro, has built 2,500 sq ft homes in under 30 days, using material with lower carbon content. Early figures point to 30 % lower material and logistics costs and 90% lower emissions than cement-based building.
In healthcare, the Technology Development Board is backing bone grafts printed from Indian bioceramic materials. Each graft can be shaped to fit one patient. A start-up named OsteoForge is working on implants made from natural silk.
In electronics, centres under the national strategy have printed batteries, antennas and capacitors, and IISc has printed parts of a photonic circuit, a first anywhere in the world.
The policy behind AM
None of this happened without an efficient policy. In February 2022, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology released the National Strategy for Additive Manufacturing.
It set targets: capture 5 per cent of the global market, add nearly $1 billion to GDP, develop 50 India-specific technologies, support 100 start-ups, create 500 products and train 1 lakh workers.
The numbers so far are encouraging.
More than 1,54,000 people have been trained. Fifty-six start-ups have been supported. Sixty-five India-specific technologies, covering materials, machines, design methods and products, have been developed. Seven centres now help with research, training and access to machines.
The effort also reaches schools. Atal Tinkering Labs get a grant of INR 20 lakh each and are equipped with 3D printers, robotics and Internet of Things kits.
A student in Grade VI can now handle a printer. That student is the future workforce.
A second phase, NSAM 2.0, is being planned. It aims to produce more patents, bring down the cost of machines and materials, strengthen the electronics supply chain, back more start-ups and support the defence forces.
What after AM
The global market for these machines is projected to reach USD 149 billion by 2035. India has a chance to make the machines and materials, and not only use them. That will need three things. First, the machines and materials must become cheaper, so small firms can afford them.
Second, the hospitals, builders and defence units that have tried the technology must buy it in larger numbers. Third, the training must lead to jobs, so that those 1,54,000 trained people find work in this field.
India will also host ESTIC-2026, organised by CSIR, from 27 to 29 October at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. AM is one of its themes. It is a good place to ask how quickly the pilot projects can become regular production.
The rocket engine and the Army home were firsts. The aim now is to make them ordinary.
When a hospital prints a graft, a builder prints a house and a start-up prints an engine without anyone calling it news, India will have made AM its own.
COURTESY: PIB SRINAGAR
