Application of 3D Printing

The Additive Manufacturing or 3D printing technology is getting popular in various industrial sector due to its advantages in manufacturing speed and quality. Earlier 3D Printers were very expensive machines because of new inventions and patents. But after their patent expired a lot of different companies started manufacturing the 3d printers by making variations and improvements in the basic design and material of the machine. Today 3D Printing is more accessible and cost-effective in industry and education both.

Today we can print almost useful object that we can imagine for example, sunglasses, shoes, tableware, jewellery, toys, mobile gadgets, even we can print screws, boat propellers, aircraft engines compartments and product prototyping.

3D Printing machines have achieved their place in various industrial sectors like Automobile, Aerospace, Electronics, Construction, Biomedical and Healthcare industry and Education as well.

Above is a Pie-Chart that shows the industries that are currently using 3D Printersin their manufacturing setup. Experts have expected the growth of 3D Printing market from $7.34BN to $35.6BN by 2024.

Aerospace Industry

The Aerospace Industry has started the use of 3D Printing and it alone accounts 18% revenue of the Additive Manufacturing Industry. Boeing has already started using 3D Printed parts made by metal AM machine from titanium alloy material on their 787 Dreamliner Aircraft. They are also aiming to produce almost 1000 different parts of aircraft from 3D Printing technology. By this they can save up to $2 million per plane.

A company called Optisys LLC provides Micro-Antenna for aerospace and defence Industry used metal 3D printing to reduce the number of discrete pieces of their tracking antenna arrays from 100 to only 1. With this simplification, Optisys managed to reduce the lead time from 11 to 2 months, while achieving a 95% weight reduction.

NASA, ESA and SpaceX are planning to include 3D Printing Technology for manufacturing combustion chambers and igniters of their rocket engine.

Architectural Industry

The construction industries have started using 3d printing technology as there are many new 3d printers invented especially for fabricating buildings or construction components.

In today’s market the architectural industry holds 3% revenue in using 3d printer machines. The machines that are used in architectural field includes Concrete orCement Extrusion (AMoC), Powder Bonding and Additive Welding. By using 3D Printing in construction various benefits are observed such as allowing more complexity and accuracy, faster construction rate, lower labour costs, greater functional integration, and less waste.

Additive Manufacturing of Concrete machines were developed since 1990 for making buildings faster and less expensive but it originally came into existence when the first 3D Printed building was constructed in Amsterdam by the architects in the year 2014. Industrial scale concrete 3D Printers were built for making concrete foundation and walls on site.

In 2014, a Chinese company Suzhou 3D Printed 10 houses in less than 24 hours which cost them almost half the price they would use to build them by using traditional construction method.

In 2017, the first fully 3d printed residential building was constructed in Yaroslavl, Russia. Around 600 walls, roof structure and interior decoration for a total area of 298.5 sq meters (3213 sq ft) were 3d printed. The building was not built just for presentation, today a real, normal family lives in it.

The European Space Agency has planned to use 3d printing technology for building "Moon Village" by using lunar soil as material till 2030.

Bio-Medical and Healthcare Industry

Since 2002, 3d printing industry plays very important role in medical research and development. Right from bioprinting and surgery equipment to making prosthetic 3d printing technology has helped many healthcare sectors to achieve the goals which were impossible without additive manufacturing. Like in today with the help of 3d printing doctors and scientist can make human organs by using the patients tissue cells.

Prosthetic made by 3d printing method is the best example of the versatility of this technology because for making an accurate prosthetic is very difficult and costly when traditional method is used. In today’s world dentist and orthodontist use this technology for producing metal implants as 3D printer has capabilities for creating porous surfaces, these types of implants more easily integrate with the patient’s own natural bones, allowing them to grow into the implant.

An application that’s a little farther in the future is bioprinting, or 3D printing cells and tissue. The dream is that one day, we’ll be able to 3D print bones and organs for patients who need them, rather than waiting for donors. For now, we’re still working on bioprinting human tissue.

Education

The increase in use of this technology for various sectors many schools and colleges have started including this technology in their curriculum. As this technology is mostly preferred in prototyping students can use this technology for making different products for their projects which will decrease the project cost.

3D printing bridges the gap from ideas and images on a page or screen, allowing for the creation of those ideas/images in the physical, 3-dimensional world.

Students explore design, engineering, and architectural principles. They are able to duplicate museum items like fossils and historical artifacts to study in the classroom without the possibility of damaging delicate collections. They are able to gain a new, 3-dimensional perspective on topographic maps.

Graphic design students can easily construct models with complex working parts. Students in the sciences can create and study cross-sections of organs in the human body as well as other biological specimens. Chemistry students can make 3D models of molecules and chemical compounds.