Mass production in large factories was always the focus of the manufacturing industry but in the last few years there has been a drastic change in the industry. The novel technologies are transforming the production processes making them efficient, waste-reducing, and offering flexibility to unprecedented designs. Additive manufacturing (AM) also known as 3D printing is one of such innovations. F parks earlier viewed AM and its capabilities as a niche process to be used in prototyping, it is now considered a viable mainstream manufacturing process. This article explores the most recent developments in additive manufacturing, paying particular attention to its increasing prominence on the global manufacturing stage and what this means to the future of manufacturing.
Comprehension of additive manufacturing:
Additive manufacturing refers to a process wherein a part or a product is made by adding material layer-by-layer as opposed to non additive manufacturing techniques, where a product is made usually by cutting away material in a larger block (subtractive manufacturing). The manufacturing process is mold and tooling free and thus manufacturers can generate intricate geometries and bespoke designs with exactness.
Various forms of additive manufacturing exist including Fuse Deposit Modeling (FDM), Stereolithography (SLA) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) etc. The uniqueness of each is in its use in relation to the material of use (plastics, metals, ceramics and so on), in regard to the needed precision, and the production volume.
The Latest Development in Additive Manufacturing:
Although AM has been in existence decades ago, innovation of the technology has been vibrant over the last few years. The significant technological breakthroughs on materials, speed and compatibility with other technologies have rendered it to be more appealing to not just the prototyping industry. One of the new developments is:
1. Revolution of Industrial Manufacturing: Metal 3D Printing:
A newer technological implementation that shows much promise in terms of usage in the future is 3D printing of metals, which was initially a very expensive and niche activity but has been becoming increasingly widespread lately in the aerospace, automotive industries, healthcare and energy. Companies such as the GE Additive, Desktop Metal and HP are spearheading the metal 3D printing technologies that have the capacity to make complicated metal.
high-parts with As an example, General Electric (GE) has been able to 3D print metal parts to create important structures on its LEAP jet engine. The capability to make parts having complex internal shapes beyond the reach of conventional manufacturing processes and methods has not only cut the weight and boosted performance but also cut the cost of production by a large margin.
2. Speed and Efficiency: the emergence of the high speed printing:
Conventional critics of 3D printing have been to blame it degradingly because of its lower speed, most of the time compared to other traditional manufacturing processes, such as injection molding. Nevertheless, recent advances have seen to it that printing technologies become faster. Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) developed by Carbon is one of them and is able to print much faster than the typical ways of 3D printing. CLIP utilises ultraviolet (UV) light and oxygen to cure a resin, allowing the finished object to be printed continuously without the object being layer-by-layer constructed. This renders it practical when high quantities of parts are to be manufactured in such industries as automotive and healthcare.
There are also newer machines being developed that allows printing to larger scales and more recently 3-D printing that has been developed to print homes and building structures in days. This could significantly lower the costs of construction as well as meet the shortages of houses in diverse regions of the globe.
3. The Innovation of Materials: Plastics to Bioprinting:
Another factor that has led to the growth of applications of 3D printing is the invention of new materials of 3-D printing. Over the past few years, the manufacturers have been trying many strange materials such as biodegradable plastics, carbon fiber-infused filaments and high-performance metal alloys. It is through such materials that 3D printing can rival traditional manufacturing process in both durability and strength.
Another hot avenue of additive manufacturing is bioprinting. This would be called the living cell printing to produce tissues, organs and other biological constructions. As it is currently still in the infant stage, The technology of bioprinting has the potential to change the face of medicine in the future because it provides a potential of printing organ or tissue donations that match the specifications of the recipient which will reduce the burden of having to depend on organ donors.
4. AI and automation in Additive Manufacturing:
With the industry still developing, they are incorporating additive manufacturing with automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to make it more productive. The use of both AI and 3D printing, in numerous industries, is assisting in optimization of the design-to-manufacturing process. One of the things that AI can do is optimize geometry to make it consume less material, have higher strength and better overall performance. With the aid of AI-based systems, automated 3D printers can conduct effortless tasks like real-time error correction and error detection without human input.
Furthermore, combining robotic arms with 3D printing is also allowing producers to generate huge-scale machineries, particularly in such areas as automotive and aerospace industries where precision and complexity matter the most. The innovations are likely to significantly lower lead times and costs, which will render AM an even better choice of mass production.
Impact on the Global Industries:
It is impossible to exaggerate the role that additive manufacturing has the power to take on the world industries. This power of AM is already being exploited in various sectors and its effects can only increase in the next few years. By having a closer look, some of the industries that are benefiting AM have been discussed:
1. Aerospace and Aviation:
One of the first industries to embrace the use of additive manufacturing is the aerospace industry. Additive manufacturing helps in manufacturing of light weight and strong parts that the aerospace industry depends mostly on. That is anything material as far as the aircraft parts to the whole fuel system. Well-known aerospace players like Boeing or Airbus have already implemented additive manufacturing in their manufacturing strategies. As a matter of fact, the 787 Dreamliner of Boeing has over 30 3D printed components.
The aerospace potential of AM is entering space exploration as well. NASA has been doing a test on 3D printing to make parts space-based on-demand, which may be necessary since long missions to Mars and beyond.
2. Automotive Manufacturing:
It is anticipated that the industry of automobiles is undergoing a big change since the makers are using additive manufacturing in the production chains. Firms such as Ford, BMW, and Volkswagen have already implemented the 3D printing into prototyping, customized parts and even tooling. AM can customize designs more and adjust an iteration rate more rapidly, and thus adapt rapidly to consumer demand.
Moreover, there is an increased popularization of electric vehicles (EVs) with 3D-printed components. The capacity to create light-weight yet strong components may have an immediate input in enhancing the range and effectiveness of the electric automobiles, an aspect that is vital to the success of the EV market.
3. Healthcare and Medical Devices:
Additive manufacturing is also having a massive effect in the healthcare industry. The applications of the 3D printing technology in custom prosthetics and implants, surgical equipment, and other solutions are patient-specific and can be cheaper and oftentimes less time-consuming to 3D print than to produce as surgical tools using the traditional methods. Besides, bioprinting may also make a breakthrough one day by allowing tissue engineering and organ transplantation.
As an example, a company specializing in biotechnology, Organovo, is applying the 3D bioprinting technology to develop liver tissue that can be used to test drugs and possibly to use therapeutically. Although organ printing is still experimental, the developments as witnessed to date can point to a brighter future of the medical field.
