The Achilles Heel of 3D Printing - Case Study Example

?3D Printing Introduction: Additive manufacturing or 3D printing (The Engineer is a method of producing a three-dimensional solid entity of figure from a digital model. Unlike the conventional procedure, which typically depends on the elimination of substance by techniques such as drilling or cutting, it is not a subtractive process. It is accomplished by means of an additive procedure, where consecutive levels of substances are set down in different shapes (Createitreal.com 2013). By means of digital technology, a printer executes 3D printing procedure. The initial operational 3D printer was produced in 1984 by Chuck Hull of 3D Systems Corp.(PCMAG 2013) Since the start of the 21st century there has been a huge growth in the sales of these machines, and their cost has dropped to a large extent.(Ptonline.com 2013) By permitting customers to avoid overheads linked with procuring general household items, it has been hypothesized(CNN 2013) that 3D printing will become a mass market article pertaining to the fact that open source 3D printing can effortlessly counterbalance their principal expenses (Dx.doi.org 2013). The 3D printing technology is employed mutually i.e. distributed manufacturing & prototyping with applications in construction (AEC). It is also used in architecture, automotive, industrial design, military, aerospace, civil engineering, engineering, medical industries, dental and biotech (also known as human tissue replacement). It is also applicable in places like footwear, education, eyewear, fashion, jewelry, food, geographic information systems and many other fields. This technology is still in alpha stage of processing and is not commercialized yet. Even then according to Wohlers Associates, which is a consulting firm, the market of 3D services and printing is worth 2.2 billion dollars (The Economist 2012). 3D Printing: The advancements in technology have attracted people towards owning glamorous items of daily use. One such technology is 3D machines. Gaming industry has excelled in it a lot and commercialization of 3D screens has led to awareness in common public regarding graphics and advancements in this industry. 3D printing is also attractive for people to use as it reflects real life imagery. The printing seems as good as if it is real. This is a positive point while marketing the 3D printing. Since the services are limited to industrial level alone, it is not much accessible to common people from every walk of life. Introducing it to the common market will already be easy as people are eager to experience new technologies and latest printing techniques in it for their everyday use. 3D printing if made commercially available will immensely help in research as well. Currently research is limited as 3D printers are not off the shelf available to common people. Technological enhancements in biotechnology, medicine and engineering will become aggressive once design ideas and research floats. Challenges in Commercializing 3D: 1) Making it economical: There are various approaches used in 3D printing including granular materials binding, extrusion disposition, lamination etc. The commercialization of 3D printing is dependent on the technique used for it to a huge extent. Printers that do not work directly with metals can be made cheap. Similarly specific shapes that can be printed easily can be made commercial and restricting other shapes due to expensive technology can be done. This way 3D printing can be commercialized to some extent. Hardware is not the only issue in 3D printing. Appropriate software’s need to be designed for it as well (Friedman 2012). These softwares are naturally complex due to complex graphics and its algorithms. Commercialization in this respect can be immensely improved by inviting third party vendors and making the original commercial softwares open source. This will invite young enthusiasts to come forward and work together to develop short applications that could be integrated to support maximum 3D printing capabilities in a single hardware. 2) Enhancing processing speed: One issue while marketing 3D printers is of its slow processing speed (Gizmodo 2013). With the fast pace of life, people wish to accomplish their tasks fast and do not have the temperament to wait for tasks to finish late. 3D printing is comparatively way too slow than the normal printing of which people are used to at home. Research needs to be done for checking and improving both hardware and software for efficient 3D printing. 3D printing will become more attractive if it encompasses multiple designs supporting multiple applications. An example of this can be the use of a single printer to print 3D images on fabric or paper. The magnitude of 3D printing will matter as well. It is right now used for small items only. People might get interested in producing 3D work at home rather than having to visit factories and get their desired prints for walls or bed sheets. The type of product allowed for 3D printing will also impact the acceptability of a 3D printer. These days plastic ware is mostly used for printing 3D images. An expansion on the type of products that can be used with a single printer will make a positive impact during sales of the technological equipment. 3) Maintaining Quality: When people invest money, they expect quality. 3D printers available at industrial level are not very much precise themselves. Even if precision is ignored for a while, the durability of 3D printing is not at an acceptable level. Steps need to be taken to avoid fragility in products and make 3D printing long lasting so that it can be valued. This can also be accomplished by providing a goof finished quality product. Current 3D projects do not involve complexity in design. It is usually done for a single design. The more the complexity of 3D printing, the more it is easy to do. Currently design implications are hindering progress at this level. Once designs are improved, this will help attract people to work on 3D printers to do serious work more rather than just Do It Yourself kind of projects. 4) Making it user friendly: One of the challenges of bringing 3D printing technique from the hands of professionals to non professionals is the Computer Aided Design (CAD) technique for printing. CAD is a design language that professionals work on to give specific instructions. One wrong instruction can destroy the print that you expect to get printed. So CAD once written has to be reviewed properly and one has to make sure that the instructions written are correct. Training non professionals for learning and using CAD is not a very good idea as it brings the user out of their comfort zone and makes them uncomfortable. Moreover, users will be making mistakes frequently and will be wasting their resources in doing printing again and again. It is better to introduce a software interface that is user friendly for this purpose. Such software can comprise of a graphical user depiction on which user is expected to draw an image and with easy to use tools and provides assistance as well. Emulators can be used in the proposed idea to show users how the 3D image will look like once printed. Users can also be given the facility to download material from the internet, revamp it for printing and then view it on emulators. This will not only help users save their precious resources but will also allow them to correct their mistakes and tweak their images before printing. If user friendliness is added to this level, users of 3D printing will be encouraged to invest in it readily. Some companies already provide 3D printer kits for the ease of use for users who are not acquainted with CAD. It has limited support for customization but it is still a helping approach for making the product commercially available. 5) Making is safe for domestic use: Safety of the device is another aspect that needs to be revisited for 3D printing if 3D printers are commercialized. The devices in the industrial printer require a lot of safety and a good understanding of the guidelines that need to be followed for handling such equipment. If these equipments are bought at home, users need to wait for its proper parts to cool down which slows down 3D printing even more. Some parts of the printers may even be as dangerous as explosives. Proper precaution must be taken into consideration when dealing with such objects. It is the need of the hour to come up with design ideas that help reduce risks involved and at the same time provide efficiency and quality. The emission of nanosized particles is also a threat for use in homes. There are other emissions from different components of the printer that are as harmful as indoor cigarette smoke. Health safety is a serious concern here. Ventilation is required. Studies have shown that the harmful emissions enter the blood stream and destroy health. According to a research done, ultra fine particles are emitted that range from 20-200 billion particles. These statistics are provided for systems that are operational. The study also tells that the cardiovascular diseases are caused due to such emissions. Before commercialization of 3D printers, it needs to be verified that the components used emit less to no harmful emissions. Care must be taken while using such devices like ventilation in room or sealing the equipment in glass. This might hinder the prospects of marketing 3D printer as people might not feel comfortable working in restricted environments (Bogart 2013). 6) Design improvement: In order to make 3D printing attractive for domestic use, its design needs to be reduced as well. Such heavy and huge machinery is not practically feasible for homes. To make it compatible for homes, the design needs to be compressed. Users should be able to user it without prior instructions. To make it user friendly, the design should be a replica of other normal printers available in the market. It has to be considered what features need to be reduced and what level of quality will be impacted. This tradeoff will determine the customer satisfaction and the usability of the printer. Operating systems should also be equipped with appropriate device managers to allow ease of use. One such example is Windows 8. It comes pre configured in the operating system to recognize 3D printing machines attached to the system directly. This plug and play feature also guides the user through the process of accessing the printer straight away to start utilizing its features. 7) Intellectual Property Rights: Intellectual property rights regarding 3D designs might need a revision as well. People will be creating designs on the fly and everyday designs will be copied to make new designs. Copying will also be very easy and might go undetected. How it impacts people feelings towards their ‘design creations’ and how they view of owning it will be an interesting aspect to consider during marketing as well (Jewell 2013). Conclusion: The adoption of 3D technology for domestic purpose printing will be resistive in the beginning. One major reason is that change is always resistive. People will find it expensive in the beginning and then slowly the price of the printers will reduce as it is already reducing due to advancements in hardware and technology. As applications of the technology expand and expenditure decreases, the initial large repercussion would be that more merchandise will be produced locally at or near to the position of utilization. This indicates household-level fabrication of things. Apart from that, merchandise that has depended on the extent of effectiveness of bulky, centralized factories will also be created in the local vicinity. Although the per-unit fabrication expenditure would be higher, the gain can be comprehended to the fact that it will completely eradicate buffer and distribution supply. While cars at present are manufactured by merely a few hundred industrial units around the globe, they will be produced in each urban region. Components will be prepared at locale repair shops and dealerships. Also, by manufacturing modules as desired, assembly factory may possibly abolish the necessity for supply chain administration. An added repercussion would be that merchandise can substantially be more tailored, since changing them will not be compulsory for re-tooling. Merely modification of the commands in the software will do the job. Rolling out identicalness is the main goal of quality control these days. Originality in meeting consumer’s expectation and its needs will come to the front in future. Trade all along the manufacturing, retailing, and supply chains will have to reorganize their tactics and processes. This can be credited as the first-order implication, and a second-order proposition would have superior impact (hbr.org 2013). References: Bogart, N. 2013. Consumer-grade 3D printers pose similar health risk as cigarette smoke: study. [online] Available at: http://globalnews.ca/news/742123/consumer-grade-3d-printers-pose-similar-health-risk-as-cigarette-smoke-study/ [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Createitreal.com. 2013. Process. [online] Available at: http://www.createitreal.com/index.php/technology/process [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Dx.doi.org. 2013. Life-cycle economic analysis of distributed manufacturing with open-source 3-D printers. [online] Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mechatronics.2013.06.002 [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Friedman, P. 2012. The Achilles’ Heel of 3D Printing ~ Innovation Investment Journal. [online] Available at: http://www.iijiij.com/2012/12/30/the-achilles-heel-of-3d-printing-015281 [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Gizmodo. 2013. Why 3D Printing Is Overhyped (I Should Know, I Do It For a Living). [online] Available at: http://gizmodo.com/why-3d-printing-is-overhyped-i-should-know-i-do-it-fo-508176750 [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Hbr.org. 2013. 3-D Printing Will Change the World. [online] Available at: http://hbr.org/2013/03/3-d-printing-will-change-the-world/ [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Jewell, C. 2013. 3-D Printing and the future of stuff. WIPO, Iss. 2. PCMAG. 2013. 3D Printing: What You Need to Know. [online] Available at: http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,3253,l=293816&a=289174&po=1,00.asp [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Ptonline.com. 2013. 3D Printers Lead Growth of Rapid Prototyping : Plastics Technology. [online] Available at: http://www.ptonline.com/articles/3d-printers-lead-growth-of-rapid-prototyping [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. The Economist. 2013. 3D printing scales up. [online] Available at: http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21584447-digital-manufacturing-there-lot-hype-around-3d-printing-it-fast [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Theengineer.co.uk. 2010. The rise of additive manufacturing | In-depth | The Engineer. [online] Available at: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/the-big-story/the-rise-of-additive-manufacturing/1002560.article [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com. 2013. Study: At-home 3-D printing could save consumers 'thousands'. [online] Available at: http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/31/study-at-home-3-d-printing-could-save-consumers-thousands/ [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013]. Read More