The TCT Group has announced the release of its TCT UK User Group 2025 report, following the third TCT UK User Group Meeting which took place on 3rd June 2025.
The full day of roundtable discussions and networking sessions facilitated knowledge share between UK users of additive manufacturing technologies, with the aim for attendees to collectively identify the challenges they face when implementing AM within their organisations, and to develop ideas to address the issues raised.
This report details the key proposals from these discussions and highlights four key areas where attendees believe improvements from technology suppliers, catapult centres and government would have the biggest impact on the success of AM optimisation within UK manufacturing.
Industry user insights
Taking place at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, and sponsored by AMS, AMUK and ASTM, the TCT User Group meeting saw a wide range of attendees from major OEM’s, SME’s and research facilities across industries such as healthcare, consumer, nuclear, automotive, defence and aerospace. This varied group took part in a dynamic exchange of insights, tackling both technical hurdles and the wider impact of additive manufacturing on UK industry.
One of the most notable benefits of this diverse collection of users was the active exchange of specific learnings between different industries, which highlighted the crucial role of collaboration to drive growth in AM adoption. Attendees also took part in a user survey showing significant insights into the attendee’s use of AM. The report details the anonymised results and notable among them were the differences in benefits and challenges seen by users of polymer vs metal technologies.
Key topics
The report outlines the main challenges currently preventing UK users from fully realising the potential of additive manufacturing and details their proposals for how to tackle them. The key topics were:
- Data sheets and shared databases - One area which was highlighted in numerous conversations throughout the day was the dissatisfaction over the access, quality and accuracy of material datasheets and its impact on the ability to adopt AM for production.
- Materials supply chains – Building on the conversations on the availability of suitable materials during the 2024 user group meeting, this year saw the focus sharply turn to supply chain robustness of these materials within the UK.
- Polymer health and safety – The growing number of polymer AM machines designed as ‘office-friendly’ has put a spotlight on the health, safety and environmental concerns of operating such systems.
- Business case support – Application discovery was hot on the agenda in 2024, but what happens once you find those suitable applications. This year one of the biggest areas of contention was how to successfully gain business case support for the use of AM.
Access the full report
The TCT Group invites industry professionals and enthusiasts to delve into the comprehensive findings to discover the details of these conversations, along with the attendee recommendations on how to tackle these issues.
The TCT UK User Group 2025 Report is available to download now.
Looking forward to 2026
As these types of discussions among different users of AM become increasingly critical to its growth and optimisation, for the next iteration the TCT Group will be expanding the scope of this event.
News will be available soon and the TCT Group invites interested parties to subscribe for updates. Be the first in the know by emailing SUBSCRIBE to tctusergroup@rapidnews.com.
