Leonid Gokhberg: ‘Almost Every Fifth High-Tech Russian Company Uses Additive Technologies’
Additive technologies including 3D-printing are growing faster than 75% of other relevant digital technology areas, noted Leonid Gokhberg, HSE First Vice-Rector and ISSEK Director, at the forum ‘Additive Technologies, Growing Horizons’ hosted by the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) on 3 December 2019.
Leonid Gokhberg made a presentation at the plenary session ‘Advances in, Current Issues with, and Prognosis of Additive Technologies Development, and Their Impact on the Economy’, which has started off the forum.
The meeting was attended by Ivan Kamenskikh, First Deputy General Director of Rusatom State Corporation, Oleg Bochkarev, Deputy Chairman of the Collegium of the RF Military Industrial Commission (MIC), Yuri Mikhailov, Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Council, Deputy Chairman of the RF MIC, Grigory Trubnikov, First Deputy RF Minister of Science and Higher Education, Mikhail Ivanov, Director of the Machine Tool and Investment Engineering Department of the RF Ministry of Industry and Trade, Andrei Grigoryev, General Director of the Promising Initiatives Foundation, Natalia Nekipelova President of TVEL JSC, Evgeniy Kablov, General Director of VIAM FSUE, representatives of leading universities and companies specialising in relevant areas. The plenary session was moderated by Daria Penchilova, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the TASS news agency.
Leonid Gokhberg’s presentation included a review of global trends in the additive technologies area. The calculations made by ISSEK experts using the iFORA big data mining system show that additive technologies are broadly represented on the digital agenda; in terms of growth rate they are ahead of 75% of other relevant technology areas, and in terms of significance index ahead of 60%, stressed First-Vice Rector.
The additive technologies field currently comprises a range of diverse research areas, technologies, and markets that act as transformation drivers for various industry-specific markets. These technologies are most actively applied in the chemical industry, in production of advanced materials, mechanical engineering, electronics, medical equipment, construction, etc. And if the ISSEK estimates the current combined additive technologies-related market at about $300 billion, this value can potentially reach approximately $25 trillion.
According to the HSE Monitoring of Innovative Behaviour of Enterprises, 17.2% of high-tech companies applied additive technologies in Russia in 2018, among other things for prototyping and production purposes. Approximately 7-8% of companies intend to start doing so by 2024.
However, only about 11.6% of high-tech enterprises match the modern ‘digital production’ image, emphasised Leonid Gokhberg. A much larger share (43.6%) do not use advanced technologies or organisational techniques, and do not plan to do so in the next five years. This poses a risk of lagging behind the global technological frontier, and losing the ability to integrate into international value chains.
The ‘Additive Technologies, Growing Horizons’ forum was organised by Rusatom to discuss the development of additive manufacturing in Russia, and the prospects for applying 3D printing technologies in manufacturing and other fields.
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