The price of silver is anticipated to climb over the years as the precious metal becomes even more of a crucial component in modern technology and manufacturing innovations. Currently silver is used in many technological applications because it is known to be reliable as an electrical and thermal conductor. It is found as a conductor in many appliances and is an essential building block of space and air craft, is used in the healthcare industry for its antibacterial attributes, and is in most electronics that people use daily including plasma television screens, batteries and cars.
Silver has been tapped as an excellent material for use in Green technologies as well by being one of the main components of solar panels, and it has become useful in water purification technologies. Silver and oxygen work together chemically to create a sanitizer for water that is used in community water systems, pools, and hospitals and is taking the place of chlorine as the filtration system of choice.
The tech industry has been exponentially increasing the demand for silver these days because of innovations with electronics including flexible and illuminated smartphones and tablets. This year the tech industry is estimated to take up 57 percent of all annually yielded silver with an anticipated ongoing 5 percent increase in demand in the coming years.
One thing being talked about a lot these days as an up-and-coming game-changer for the technology and manufacturing industries is 3-D printing. 3-D printing is a fascinating new approach to manufacturing where a 3-dimensional object of any shape is made by printing layers of material upon itself repeatedly, eventually creating an object out of what seemed to be thin air. 3-D printers are considered industrial robots. There are two kinds of this new invention process that require silver: first, silver is used as the mold for a lot of this 3-D printing. It is cast in the manner of traditional silver casting. Many businesses have been using this technology to create silver molds for their jewelry products. Using 3-D printed molds is advantageous to jewelry making because it is less complicated than the traditional way to make intricate design molds with variations. The other way silver is being used for 3-D printing purposes is a process called direct laser sintering, which uses a laser on silver as a source of power to create a solid object by using heat and pressure before it reaches a melting point. The jewelry and silverware industry has been the first to take advantage of this invention but it is predicted that coins could be next.
3-D Printing is predicted to entirely change the manufacturing and technology industries. As it becomes more well-known and more widely used the price of silver will continue to increase. Watch the horizon for silver playing an even more important role in the advancement of science and technology and its market price reflecting this success.
