One of the new markets where we are beginning to see an increased appreciation for the value of AM is semiconductor capital equipment manufacturing and data centers. Trillion-dollar investments are being made in AI that influence these areas.

"Throughout 2024, additive manufacturing (AM) has continued to demonstrate tremendous value as it is integrated into production manufacturing workflows. As we look to the coming year, I expect we'll see adoption continue to accelerate in high-reliability markets such as energy, oil and gas, semiconductor capital equipment manufacturing, and aerospace and defense. While all these markets operate within very exacting standards and regulatory requirements for part quality, performance, reliability, and traceability, they are in various stages of their AM journey.

One of the new markets where we are beginning to see an increased appreciation for the value of AM is semiconductor capital equipment manufacturing and data centers. Trillion-dollar investments are being made in AI that influence these areas. The nanoscale of advanced microprocessors, combined with the extraordinary number used in a modern data center, creates an extremely challenging environment to keep the processors cool in operation.

AM is already beginning to show promise as a way to produce heat sinks using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) and pure copper. This year, I anticipate we'll see many more of these components produced to give GPU and datacenter architects a powerful means of removing heat effectively from the system.

While these newer application spaces are beginning to take hold, I anticipate some of the early adopters of AM such as F1 racing, foundries, and even aerospace & defense will deepen the use of the technology across their businesses. As AM solution providers continue to bring new advancements to market —in materials, hardware, and software— I believe these precision-driven markets will evolve how they use the technology to deliver value for production applications across their manufacturing workflows.

I see tremendous opportunities in the coming year in healthcare as well. Whether we are looking at medical devices for orthopedic applications or for the dental market to align, protect, repair, and replace teeth, it is likely the trend to deliver patient-specific solutions will proliferate. AM's ability to enable the simultaneous production of unique complex parts can help surgeons and clinicians deliver a better experience to their patients. I expect the advancements AM has already made in these areas will also enable great strides in newer fields such as regenerative medicine over the coming months, with the potential to improve the quality of life for countless patients.

Finally, over the past 12 months, we've seen significant progress in the capability of software to not only accelerate but manage the manufacturing workflow thus transforming how products are brought to market. This year, I anticipate we'll see an increase of the adoption of manufacturing operating systems to provide full factory floor workflow integration, automation, control, and optimization across both industrial and healthcare markets. The integration of these systems can help accelerate the design and production of additively manufactured parts across the entire manufacturing workflow to increase efficiency and facilitate regulatory compliance."