Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing

Question:

Discuss about the Concept of 3D Printing.

In the world of technological advancements, the concept of the 3D printing has changed to the concept of reality from being theoretical. The concept of the design of the product with it being very much cheap and various models which are easily available the technology is being widely adopted in many areas (Campbell et al., 2017).  Moreover, it has been very much common feature at every home.

The main aim of the report is to bring into consideration the concept if the 3D printing as an additive manufacturing. It reports mainly analysis the concept of whether the concept is suited better for low volume or high volume types of production. The situation and relating to it, its value is mainly analysed along with the concept of forecasting on the 3D printing. At the end of the report the ways in which the concept of the 3D printing can make the conventional manufacturing outdates along with its direct effects are taken into consideration.

3D printing is mainly called an additive manufacturing due to the factor that the process can be easily be implemented in the application which are used for the creation of the 3D object from the digital files. It can be stated that 3D objects can only be created by the implementation of additive processes that mainly include layering of the successive layer of the material until the object is considered to be created fully. Taking into consideration the successive layers, the layers can be seen as a very thin cross section slice section of the eventual object. The concept of the subtracting manufacturing is not taken into consideration that mainly include hollowing out or the cutting out of the material from a piece which is complete which is related to the material of metal or plastic through the use of milling machine. The American society of testing and material mainly introduced the additive manufacturing which mainly lead to the development of seven standards that could be very much helpful in order to classify the additive manufacturing into mainly seven categories. These processes are listed below:

Material extrusion: There are mainly three technologies which can be related to its which are FFF, FDM and contour crafting and this can be used to implement and add materials and the creation of the object which are represented as an additive evidence.

The Seven Standards of Additive Manufacturing

Direct deposition of energy: This concept is mainly used in the manufacture of high tech industry and applications. It comprises of deposits of the metal powder on the surface and the multi- axis hand of the robotics which is connected to the nozzle which is used to the creation of the object (Weller, Kleer & Piller, 2015).

Powder bed fusion: there are mainly two types of additive process that are used under the process in order to create 3D objects which includes the SLS (selective laser sintering), DMLS (Direct metal laser sintering).

Binder jetting: in this section liquid binder and material of powder base are used. In the chamber this powder is mainly spread equally and the addition of glue is made which mainly strengthen the objects.

Material jetting: the basic working principle is related very much similar to the concept of the inkjet paper printer in which the material is basically applied through the use of a small nozzle. The only difference which is applied to the concept is that application is mainly done in a layer by layer manner in order to build the 3D object and after the process it is mainly hardened by the exposure of the UV light (Loo, Chua & Pumera, 2017).

Sheet lamination: bounded by external forces it mainly involves material which are in the shape of the sheet.Vat photo – Polymerization

Figure 1: (Vat photo – Polymerization)

(SOURCE: Weller, Kleer & Piller, 2015).

The above picture clearly describes the main working concept of the Vat Photo – Polymerization in which is container is mainly filled with photopolymer resin after which it is mainly harden with the application of UV source of light. On the other hand, there are three process which are involved in the concept which can be stated to justify the factor of additive manufacturing that mainly include DLP (Digital light Processing), CLIP (continuous liquid interface production) and SLA (stereolithographic) (Grice et al., 2016).

The conventional process which is related to the concept of moulding injection are utilized mainly for the wide scale manufacturing. Hence it can be stated that it is very much suited for volume production which is high. It can be stated to the reshaping of the development and the product manufacturing (Weller, Kleer & Piller, 2015). By the implementation of the process of 3D printing, the designers and the engineers are able to save money. Taking into account the save of time, it can be regarded as very much beneficial.

The Value of 3D Printing for High Volume Production

Regarding the low volume manufacture, the labour intensive and the portion of the cost has been the tooling production. The printers which are 3D are able to remove the expense part since it eradicates the necessity for the production of the tools that has been cutting the lead time and the labour (Ju et al., 2017)

Regarding the high volume manufacture, there are many benefits that are inherent to the process. this mainly involve the capacity which is related to the production of the parts which are custom with no cost of upfront virtually. Moreover, it can be stated to be capable of producing the shape that are uneconomical and impossible (Radenkovic, Solouk & Seifalian, 2016).

The situation in which the 3D printing is most valuable mainly depends on how the term value is defined (Xing, Zheng & Duan, 2015). The largest market of the 3D printing is currently based on application of the customer has been the hearing aids. The ear hearing aids are mainly created through the implementation of the 3D printing.

The plastic implants and the implants have been possessing potentially higher orders in the market. Taking into consideration other unrealized market scenario which is related to the 3D printing cartilage, can be considered to be decide away from the commercialization.

The products which are related to custom fit has been the outstanding project which is related to business for those customer who have been searching for the 3D printing. The advantage which is achieved from the concept is that it mainly fits the customer demand the way they need it (Ju et al., 2017)

The leading research which is being conducted is mainly in the field of whether to conduct the research according to in house capabilities, the reason and outsourcing. Taking into account the organization which are committed for the 3D printing the outcomes has been the part of ensuring that the me path of the peers and the field of various challenges for the adoption (Xing, Zheng & Duan, 2015). A competitive advantage is mainly achieved by the usage of the security printing in order to achieve manufacturing of the product which has been coming out of the current competitive advantage.

There have been ways in which the 3D printing aspects is obsoleting the concept of the traditional manufacturing. The concept of the 3D printing has been speeding the design which is related to the product and the overall speed of the business. Moreover, it has been creating a concept of object dense which is devoid of discernible layering and the concept of monolithic. Moreover, it can be stated that the technology directly provides greater freedom in the design and the innovation which is related to the spur. The technology has been producing the project in a fast and comparatively much costlier (Xing, Zheng & Duan, 2015).

The Value of 3D Printing for Low Volume Production

The implementation has been providing the concept of the manufacture as a service tool, which is very much same as the software as a service. The reduction of the waste is also encountered and the development of the resources which are being used in the concept. The left over material after the implementation of any process can be used in different sectors and the reuse factor is taken into account.

Conclusion

The concept of the 3D printing should be included into any organisation and they should gain in hand knowledge of how these technologies can be used in order to achieve benefit from them. The organisation on the other hand need to identify the low volume product and altering them fast as the market dynamics are changed.

Recommendation 1: Printing on curved surfaces which are on multiple planes should be avoided.

Recommendation 2: Enclosed hollow features creation should be avoided.

Recommendation 3: The smoothening of the steeping edges can be made many times with the use of sand paper.

Recommendation 4: The disclosing of the support material in the hollow should not be disclosed. This is due to the factor that soluble solutions may not reach the materials.

References

Campbell, T., Williams, C., Ivanova, O., & Garrett, B. (2017). Could 3D printing change the world. Technologies, Potential, and Implications of Additive Manufacturing, Atlantic Council, Washington, DC.

Grice, N., Christian, C., Nota, A., & Greenfield, P. (2016). 3D Printing Technology: A Unique Way of Making Hubble Space Telescope Images Accessible to Non-Visual Learners. Journal of Blindness Innovation & Research, 5(1).

Ju, Y., Xie, H., Zheng, Z., Lu, J., Mao, L., Gao, F., & Peng, R. (2017). Visualization of the complex structure and stress field inside rock by means of 3D printing technology. Chinese science bulletin, 59(36), 5354-5365.

Lee, J. Y., Tan, W. S., An, J., Chua, C. K., Tang, C. Y., Fane, A. G., & Chong, T. H. (2016). The potential to enhance membrane module design with 3D printing technology. Journal of Membrane Science, 499, 480-490.

Loo, A. H., Chua, C. K., & Pumera, M. (2017). DNA biosensing with 3D printing technology. Analyst, 142(2), 279-283.

McMenamin, P. G., Quayle, M. R., McHenry, C. R., & Adams, J. W. (2014). The production of anatomical teaching resources using three?dimensional (3D) printing technology. Anatomical sciences education, 7(6), 479-486.

Moon, S. K., Tan, Y. E., Hwang, J., & Yoon, Y. J. (2014). Application of 3D printing technology for designing light-weight unmanned aerial vehicle wing structures. International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing-Green Technology, 1(3), 223-228.

Radenkovic, D., Solouk, A., & Seifalian, A. (2016). Personalized development of human organs using 3D printing technology. Medical hypotheses, 87, 30-33.

VAT Photopolymerisation | Additive Manufacturing Research Group | Loughborough University. (2017). Lboro.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2017, from https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/amrg/about/the7categoriesofadditivemanufacturing/vatphotopolymerisation/

Ventola, C. L. (2014). Medical applications for 3D printing: current and projected uses. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(10), 704.

Weller, C., Kleer, R., & Piller, F. T. (2015). Economic implications of 3D printing: Market structure models in light of additive manufacturing revisited. International Journal of Production Economics, 164, 43-56.

Xing, J. F., Zheng, M. L., & Duan, X. M. (2015). Two-photon polymerization microfabrication of hydrogels: an advanced 3D printing technology for tissue engineering and drug delivery. Chemical Society Reviews, 44(15), 5031-5039.