What is 3D printing technology?

Discuss about the Assessment of 3D Printing Technology for Additive Manufacturing.

3D printing or Additive Manufacturing is a process, which is able to create a physical object from a digitally designed object. It is a form of process of manufacturing three dimensional solid objects that would be extracted from a digital file(Bingheng&Dichen, 2013).

This report is based on a medium sized organization, which mainly focuses on the manufacturing of printers and computers for various businesses that are based in Victoria. In the recent times, the company has decided to expand their services. They have decided to implement the technology of 3D printing within their services.The primary aim of the company is to expand their business services in the cheapest possible way without the need of creating extra infrastructures. The company is also deciding on implementing security features that might be faced during the implementation of this technology (Scalfani& Sahib, 2013).

The main aim of this report is:

• Gathering information about the use of the technology of 3D printing
• Evaluation of the various uses of the 3D technology
• To keep a check on the consequence of implementing the technology within various industries and the process of implementation
• To discuss the advantages and disadvantages with the new technology with respect to the traditional scenario
• To check about the proper recommendations based on the issues

The main purpose of the report is to provide relevant information to the Australian manufacturing company in order to incorporate the technologies of 3D printing within the process of manufacturing.

The technology of 3D printing within the process of manufacturing is defined as the process in which the structure would be created by layering the 3D parts one after the other by using the data of the CAD design. The CAD software would help in the analyzing of the design by the printer. The 3D printing technology makes use of the process of slicing. The design of the layers is based on different kinds of technology, timeline of the project, material and the desired resolution (Petrick& Simpson, 2013). 

There are different kinds of applications that make use of the technology of 3D printing. They are as follows:

Nano Dimension is a renowned company that offers a kind of 3D printer, which is popularly known as Dragonfly 2020. This company has invested their resources within the manufacturing technology by using nanotech inks. They manufacture these designs for small scale designers and they involve the design of the circuit. The company also develops circuit boards that are layered in a professional manner thus allowing the designers of the circuit to save their precious time by developing much more innovative technologies (Flowers et al., 2017).

There is another company, which is named as SOLS. The company makes use of the technology of 3D printing in order to create 3D print based shoes and orthotics. The company is also responsible for manufacturing cheap quality of shoes with this easy method. Customers are able to order their customized shoes from their newly developed mobile application (Appleton, 2014).

Applications of 3D printing technology

The technology of 3D printing has also been a major area of research within the laboratories as it provides the ability to design specialized and bespoke geometries. In the year 2012, a single proof of the principal project at the Glasgow University, UK displayed that it was possible to use the techniques of 3D printing in order to support within the production of chemical based compounds (Kitson et al., 2013). Initially they printed vessels, which could support chemical reactions. Secondly, they used the 3D printer in order to deposit the reactants within the vessels. Hence, they were able to produce new compounds in order to verify the validity of the entire process.

The company FicTiv has brought about a revolution within the scenarios of the 3D printing technologies by providing different companies an innovative way to print their designs of 3D based models with a delivery time within 24 hours (Hassan, 2017). The company has provided the ability to the client in order to upload the CAD based file and thus choose the process of manufacturing. The company has also gained experience by working with renowned companies such as Synapse, Williams-Sonoma and Whistle.

The FDM based process is used in order to print hollow vessels for the chemical reactions, which are also known as microreactors. If the 3D print would be performed within an inert atmosphere of gas, the reaction vessels could be filled with high reactive based substances during the process of printing (Hwang et al., 2015). The objects, which are 3D printed, are basically kept in air or water tight components for several weeks. By printing the reaction vessels within the geometry of common measurement tubes or cuvettes, measurements of routine analytics that includes UV/VIS-, NMR-spectroscopy, which could be performed directly within the 3D printed vessel (Itagaki, 2015).

The technology that is used by Nano Dimensions could be implemented within the operations of the business within the organization. The company makes use of Nano inks in order to make small prototypes of circuit board. The 3D printer makes use of a method of deposition, which makes use of a material in the form of an inkjet (Comina, Suska&Filippini, 2014). The technology makes use of a curing system that would be based on heating for the creation of the PCB boards. The process of developing and the manufacturing of the PCBs would be extremely expensive.With the investments within this technology, it could help the organization in order to save the expenses. It could also help the organization in order to save the expenses of the transportation of the PCBs as because the 3D printers would be located individually within the mentioned company. In this technique, a dielectric based material is used for the purpose of insulation and then the Nano ink, which is based on silver would be put on the topmost part of the circuit (Espalin et al., 2014).

Advantages of incorporating 3D printing technology into manufacturing

The second application is that the organization could benefit from the adoption of the 3D printing technology because of the purpose of efficiency. In order to cut the costs of developing of printers and computers, the organization could invest their resources on the technology in order to allow the technical team for making standard boards, factor and for the purpose of experimentation (Lee et al., 2016).

The third application of the 3D print technology for the desired organization is for the creation of small scale prototypes and various kind of models. The continuous innovation in the technological part is required to place the hardware in between the different models of the products for the purpose of the production of various printer and parts of computers. Different manufacturers make use of this kind of technology for the purpose of research and thus developing the models of the prototype, which would be able to suit the basic needs of the customer (Macsonald et al., 2014). The team of manufacturers could then join and discuss about the fact whether the prototype that is implemented would be safe for the purpose of manufacturing or they would be helpful in improving the model. The entire cost of outsourcing of the entire process of the research would be saved by implementing the 3D based technology within the respective organization.

Figure 1: Prototyping

(Source: Ford, 2014)

There are many potential advantages of the adoption of the applications within the business processes of the given organization, which could not be ignored.  The adoption of the new technology of 3D printing has opened various areas for the companies in order to utilize different kinds of features that includes the testing of the products, cost reduction, customization of the products and the faster designing of the products. The technology could become easy for the fast customizations within the electronic parts of the organization (Rayna &Striukova, 2016).

The advantages of the applications are:

• The tools for the prototyping injection mould are some of the investments, which are expensive. The process of 3D printing would allow for the creation of the tools or the parts through the process of additive manufacturing. The rates of additive manufacturing is very much lower than the traditional form of manufacturing (Cotteleer& Joyce, 2014).
• In order to verify a design before the investment within an expensive tool for moulding is equal to the weight in the 3D printed plastic. With the printing of the prototype, it would build confidence before making huge investments.
• With the process of standard mass production, all of the 3D printed parts would come out of the assembly line. With the technology of 3D printing, a person could personalize, customize and then twist a single part in order to fit into the needs that would allow for the fits in the custom within the dental and the medical based industries. This would allow the people to set differences within the fashion and the world of jewelry (Yap &Yeong, 2014)
• The possibilities within the recent boom of the digital design and art are growing limitlessly. With the latest innovations within the 3D printing, it has become extremely easy to draw everything in a virtual environment.

The disadvantages of the applications are:

• The technology of 3D printing might not be applicable for the particular development of a product. The societal, political, environmental and the impacts on the economy of the technology are being explored widely but are still not developed.
• This technology has not gained a competitive edge with the processes of the conventional form of manufacturing. As the prices of the raw materials and the printers would continue to decrease, hence the range of the efficiency of the production would be expected to increase (Ford, 2014).
• The organizations that build printers and computers, which could be able to apply the technology of 3D printing within the applications has their own disadvantages. Many of the steps within the traditional process of manufacturing are removed because of the process of 3D based printing would allow for the manufacturing of the complex electronic parts. This would result in the stoppage of certain form of the technological based innovations that includes the development of different kinds of tools and the rapid model of prototyping.

Figure 2: Additive Manufacturing

(Source: Zopf et al., 2013)

The ethical point of view of the different applications is in relation with the huge fundings that a kind of project would receive for the purpose of research and the development. Within the process of manufacturing of the different parts of the printer and the computer, there are different projects for the model of the prototype that would need a proper method of funding in order to extract the benefits. The funding is generally provided by a third party that would be exclusive of the knowledge based on the project that would be responsible for the funding. This would lead to the rise of a basic question of ethics regarding the right form of technology that would be able to judge about the funding needs of the project (Zopf et al., 2013).

Disadvantages of incorporating 3D printing technology into manufacturing

The social point of view of using the applications within the process of manufacturing within the mentioned organization is that the usage of the technology of 3D printing would help in facilitating the loss of the jobs of manufacturing. As the technology of 3D printing would reduce the need for the process of subtractive manufacturing, hence it would reduce the time that would be required for the purpose of the creation of the design of the prototype. The outcome of the result after the use of the technology would result in the reduction of the cost of the labor. Hence the jobs based on manufacturing would be reduced. This would help in impacting in the social form as it would increase the unemployment level, lead to the increase of the low skill jobs and thus would lead to an effect to the economic based condition of the people.

The legal based view of the applications for creation of the products from the perspective of the organization would be based on the copyright infringements. The foremost legal based problems that is associated with the 3D print based technology is counterfeiting. An organization needs to have a blue print in order to manufacture a particular product. This could be used for the creation of the parts of the printer and the computer by different organizations without keeping a worry about the violations of a patient. These kind of violations would become increasingly difficult in order to detect a 3D based technology.

The method of 3D printing would be considered as the implantation of the stem cells that would be capable of generating new kind of tissues and the organs within humans. The technology of 3D printing is also being implemented within the biotechnical firms and academics for various applications within the process of tissue engineering (Michalski & Ross, 2014).

Conclusion

The report concludes on the fact that the 3D printing technology would be able to offer a lot of benefits in the future of various resources. As the technology is still in its earlier stages, hence it would require an extreme research based on the final impacts, the manufacturers would require to work hard in order to use a complement to the traditional based process. The report discusses about the potential advantages and disadvantages with the implementation of this technology. The application of the use of the 3D printing technology for the purpose within the organization have been discussed from the point of view of legal, social and ethics. The industries that are making use of the technology within Australia and around the world are been discussed within the report.

Ethical, social, and legal issues

The CEO of the organization should keep in mind that the technology with which they are working would be new and hence they might suffer from some repercussions that would be negative because of the social and legally based viewpoints that might be faced by the technology. Before thinking of the plans for the expansion of the business, the CEO would need to consider the use of the technology within certain limits. For the recent time, the best method that would be possible for the expansion of the strategy would be in the implementation of the technology within certain parts of the organization and thus assess the potential impacts of the technology.

The first recommendation that could be beneficial for the organization is to keep the traditional based methods of the manufacturing within the company and thus use of the 3D technology based on printing as an additive form of technology in order to support the organization to meet the goals of manufacturing.

Another recommendation that would be needed to check is to keep a check whether any violation of the rules of the organization would be breached.The creation of the copyright based products might be able to harm the sustainability within the organization for a longer period of time.

The final recommendation for the benefit of the organization would be to find a material of replacement that would consume less energy and would be available readily. As the manufacturing of printers and computers would be expensive with the process of 3D printing, hence the organization could put their own resources on the purpose of the research that would be easy and feasible (Tseng & Hu, 2014).

References

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