Adoption of Additive Technologies by Florence Industries: Designing a Survey Session

Abstract

Although the wide diffusion and technological development of Additive Technologies, it is still unclear to what extent the related potentialities are actually exploited. The work described in this paper aims at developing an on-line survey to be administered to industrial practitioners from different types of firm to elicit the information required to better understand the role of additive technologies and/or prototypes. In particular, we developed a preliminary version of the survey, and tested it with a limited sample of academic participants. The followed procedure, which includes the administration of a NASA Task Load Index questionnaire to participants, allowed to rapidly receive important feedbacks to support the development of a robust survey. Once administered to the expected final participants, the survey is expected to provide information about which are the main technologies used by different industrial sectors, how firms currently select 3D printers, and how they are currently used for design purposes.