The term “Additive Manufacturing” or “3D Printing” refers to the process of creating a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or digital 3D model. The material is brought together using a variety of processes, frequently layer by layer, and computer-controlled deposition, joining, or solidification is subsequently performed.
One of the main benefits of 3D Printing is its capacity to create extremely intricate shapes or geometries that would be impossible to create by hand, including hollow pieces or items with internal truss structures to minimize weight.
It is possible to think of each of these levels as a finely sliced cross-section of the object. The opposite of 3D Printing is subtractive manufacturing, which entails cutting a hole through a piece of metal or plastic.
3D Printing Examples
Due to its widespread use across virtually every industry, you can imagine, 3D Printing encompasses a wide range of technologies and materials. It’s crucial to think of it as a collection of many industries with a wide range of potential applications.
Examples include:
- Consumer goods (design, eyewear, footwear, furniture).
- Goods used in industry (prototypes, manufacturing tools, functional end-use parts).
- Dental supplies.
- Artificial limbs.
- Making replicas of historic artifacts.
- Forensic Pathology’s Reconstruction of Evidence movie props.
- Maquettes and scale models for architecture.
- Rebuilding fossils.
What Is the Procedure for 3D Printing?
As we have already seen, the 3D Printing process entails building an object up layer by layer of molten plastic. Once each layer dries, the subsequent layer is printed on top of it, layer by layer, creating the final product.
A digital file that instructs the 3D printer where to place the material is necessary to create a 3D print. The G-code files are the most popular file type for this. The X, Y, and Z axes, commonly referred to as “coordinates,” in this file direct the printer’s movements horizontally and vertically. Similar to pixels on a screen, a print with more layers will have a greater “resolution.” Although printing will take longer, this will produce a better-looking output.
Advantages of 3D Printing
Speed
Rapid verification and the creation of design concepts are two further benefits of 3D Printing. Although printing and post-processing a part on industrial additive manufacturing machines often takes longer, the ability to produce functioning end parts in low to medium volumes offers a significant time-saving advantage over conventional manufacturing techniques.
Cost
3D Printing is a very effective and practical manufacturing technology for small production. Since they require skilled machine operators and technicians to operate them, traditional prototyping methods like CNC machining require a large number of expensive machines and have greater labor costs.
Advantage Over Competitors
The life cycles of products are reduced due to 3D Printing’s efficiency and lower costs. Companies may improve their goods, which enables them to deliver better products in less time.
The actual demonstration of new items to customers and investors made possible by 3D Printing reduces the possibility of data errors or omissions during communication. It also makes it possible to test markets effectively, gather feedback from potential customers, and attract investors to physical products while minimizing the danger of prototyping at exorbitant expense.
Flexibility
The fact that a given printer can create anything that fits inside its build volume is yet another helpful benefit of 3D Printing. By using standard manufacturing techniques, every new item or design update would call for the creation of a new tool, jig, or mold.
Contrary to conventional methods, 3D Printing enables the incorporation of numerous materials into a single item, enabling the variation and synchronization of a variety of colors, mechanical qualities, and textures.
Users of all skill levels, even those with little experience in computer-aided design, can alter designs using 3D Printing to create one-of-a-kind, customized new parts.
Decreases the Risk
Businesses can reduce their manufacturing risks by using 3D Printing. It allows product designers to validate product prototypes before 3D Printing technology and before initiating significant manufacturing investments, which may turn out to be disastrous.
Quality
Conventional manufacturing techniques can readily produce prototypes with inadequate designs and, consequently, prototypes of poor quality. Imagine attempting to prepare a cake by combining all the ingredients, blending them thoroughly, and then baking them in the oven
Accessibility
Compared to traditional manufacturing setups, 3D Printing equipment is far more widely available and usable by a bigger population. 3D Printing sets are less expensive than traditional manufacturing methods, with higher management costs.
They are also more accessible than traditional manufacturing systems because they require fewer humans to run, monitor, and handle the machine.
Disadvantages of 3D Printing
Lessening of Strength Compared to Traditional Manufacturing
A lot of 3D printed products, except those made from metal, which has strong mechanical properties, are relatively fragile compared to traditional production methods.
Restrictions on Accuracy
The type of machine and/or method used determines how precise a printed part will be. The finished parts may differ from the designs since some desktop printers have tighter tolerances than others.
High Volume at a Higher Cost
Due to the absence of economies of scale, major production activities are typically more expensive to carry out with 3D Printing. According to estimations, 3D Printing is found to be less cost-effective than items manufactured using traditional manufacturing techniques when a direct comparison is done between similar products.
Post-Processing Specifications
Most 3D-printed parts need to be post-processed in some way. This can include final machining, heat treatment to achieve certain material qualities, or smoothing to generate the desired finish.
Types of 3D Printers
Many manufacturing processes that construct items layer by layer fall under the umbrella of 3D Printing. Each has a unique manner of shaping plastic and metal components, as well as variations in material choice, surface quality, durability, manufacturing efficiency, and price.
Types of 3D Printing:
- Stereolithography (SLA)
- Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
- PolyJet
- Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS)
- Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
- Digital Light Process (DLP)
- Multi Jet Fusion (MJF)
- Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)
- Binder Jetting (BJ)
Selecting the right 3D Printing technique for your application requires an understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of each technique as well as an understanding of how those features relate to your product development objectives.
Let’s first discuss how 3D Printing fits into the product development cycle before examining common 3D Printing technologies and their advantages.
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
The 3D Printing method known as FDM was created by Scott Crump and then used by Stratasys Ltd. in the 1980s. It prints its 3D things using high-grade thermal plastic materials. It is used to create working prototypes, concept models, and manufacturing tools. It is a technique with a remarkable strength-to-weight ratio that can produce precise details.
The user must divide the 3D CAD data (the 3D model) into several layers using specialized software before the FDM printing procedure can start. The printer constructs the object layer by layer on the build platform using the sliced CAD data.
In addition, to extruding thermoplastic, the printer can also do so using a variety of support materials. For instance, the printer can add special support material underneath to help sustain the upper layers; this material evaporates after printing. The complexity and size of the product, as with all 3D printers, determine how long it will take to produce.
The finished product needs cleaning, just like many other 3D technologies. For some objects, raw FDM parts may have pretty obvious layer lines. After printing, these will require hand sanding and finishing.
This is the only method for obtaining a finished product with a smooth, even surface. FDM-finished products are durable and useful. This makes it a widely used procedure for a variety of industries, such as mechanical engineering and components producers. To mention a few, Nestle, a well-known food manufacturer, and BMW both use FDM 3D Printing.
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
Solid plastic is created from the melting of nylon-based powders during selective laser sintering. SLS parts are strong, ideal for functional testing, and capable of supporting living hinges and snap-fits. Parts are stronger than SL but have rougher surface finishes We use 3D Systems’ sPro140 equipment for our SLS printers.
SLS is capable of using a variety of materials and produces robust, highly accurate products. It’s the ideal technique for fully working prototypes and end-use parts. The speed and quality of SLS are relatively close to those of SLA technology.
SLA employs liquid resins, whereas SLS uses powdered materials, and this is the key distinction. This large range of materials is what makes SLA technology so well-liked for printing unique products.
PolyJet
There is a twist to PolyJet, another 3D Printing method for plastic. It may create parts with a variety of characteristics, including different colors and materials. We advise sticking with SL or SLS if your design is a single, stiff material because it is more cost-effective.
But PolyJet can spare you from having to make an early tooling investment if you’re designing an over-molding or silicone rubber design. By doing so, you can evaluate your idea more quickly, iterate on it, and save money.
Digital Light Processing (DLP)
SLA and digital light processing both use light to cure the liquid resin. The main distinction between the two technologies is that DLP utilizes a UV laser while SLA utilizes a digital light projector screen. This translates to faster build times for DLP 3D printers because they can image an entire layer of the construct at once.
Stereolithography (SLA)
Stereolithography was the first 3D Printing technique used in industry. SLA printers are exceptional at creating items with fine details, flawless surface finishes, and exact tolerances. Quality surface finishes on SLA parts can help the part operate by, for instance, verifying the assembly’s fit in addition to looking good. The medical sector makes extensive use of it, and popular uses include microfluidics and anatomical modeling. For SLA parts, we employ 3D Systems’ Vipers, ProJets, and iPros 3D printers.
Multi Jet Fusion (MJF)
Multi Jet Fusion also creates functional pieces from nylon powder, much like SLS. MJF applies fusing chemicals to the bed of nylon powder using an inkjet array rather than a laser to sinter the powder.
In comparison to SLS, this leads to more uniform mechanical qualities and better surface polish. The MJF process also has the advantage of a quicker build time, which lowers production costs.
Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS)
New design options for metal parts are made possible by metal 3D Printing. Direct metal laser sintering is the method Proto Labs employs to 3D print metal components. Since DMLS parts are just as dense as those made with conventional metal manufacturing techniques like machining or casting, it is practical for both prototype and production.
The ability to fabricate metal parts with intricate geometries also makes them appropriate for use in medical applications where a part design must resemble an organic structure.
Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)
LOM was initially created by a California-based business called Helisys Inc. (now Cubic Technologies) as a powerful and cost-efficient 3D Printing technique. LOM was initially invented by a US design engineer named Michael Feygin, a pioneer in 3D Printing technologies.
LOM is a quick prototyping technique that functions by heating and pressing layers of plastic or paper together to fuse or laminate them. The printer then pulls a fresh sheet of paper over the substrate, adhering it with heated rollers.
Binder Jetting (BJ)
BJ 3D Printing was initially developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Other terms that may be used to describe this technology include:
- Printing on a powder bed
- Drop-on-powder
- 3D Printing with inkjet
- Inkjet binding (BJ). We will refer to it by this name because it is the most well-known.
BJ is a 3D Printing method that creates items using two different types of materials: a bonding agent and a powder-based substance (often gypsum). The “bonding” ingredient, as its name implies, functions as a potent adhesive to affix (bind) the powder layers together.
Like that of a conventional 2D inkjet printer, the printer nozzles extrude the binder as a liquid. After a layer is complete, the construction plate slightly lowers to make place for the upcoming one.
The following four materials are frequently used in BJ Printing:
- Ceramics
- Sand
- Plastics
- Metals
BJ printing has various benefits, but it can’t produce 3D items with excessively high resolution or durability. For instance, you can print parts in full color with these printers. Simply add color pigments to the binder typically white, black, yellow, cyan, and magenta to get this.
Expect more fantastic things in the future as this technology continues to advance. At of this writing, quick prototyping and diverse uses in the aerospace, automotive, and medical industries are some applications of BJ 3D Printing.
