Rapidly changing needs for materials and innovative manufacturing systems are creating new opportunities for small business and industry in today’s global marketplace. For a country to become competitive, grow existing and develop new industries, an initiative on advanced manufacturing is of the utmost importance. This initiative should support research to develop new classes of materials, material systems, material processing, characterization methods and techniques as well as tools to help make the manufacturing base more competitive. History has proved that in almost every case, the discovery of a new material has led to the establishment of new industries and a resultant rapid economic growth.
Advanced manufacturing` technology results in new product development, material beneficiation and improvement in the performance of production and manufacturing systems. The main aim is to transform scientific discovery into social benefits and to realize private sector commercialization, thereby opening up new opportunities.
The AMT hinge not just on policies and investments at a national level of a country but also on capacity to foster clusters of innovation in the provinces across a country and to identify market opportunities from the technological applications.
Materials Technology is an enabling tool that must work in conjunction with the main industry drivers to promote value addition. Besides this, Advanced manufacturing technology has the following advantages:
– Development of new and advanced materials for product or process development
– The beneficiation of existing raw materials
– Coordinated effort in research and development concerning fundamental or applied research in a laboratory, field, or research facility in order to create longer term opportunities.