The Uses and Future of 3D Printing - Essay Example

THE USES AND FUTURE OF 3D PRINTING of the Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Importance of 3D printing 3 Comparison of 3D printing with other models 4 Analysing application, market trends, and prediction of the 3D printing technology 5 7 Application of 3D printing 7 How the 3D printing save the manufacturing costs 8 The limitations of 3D printing 9 Conclusion 9 Reference list 11 Introduction The term 3D is a concept that refers to solid freeform technology, rapid prototyping, or additive manufacturing (Sharma, 2013). In simple term, the 3D refers to three dimensions, which means generation of printed objects with three dimensions. The concept involves fabricating and developing prototypes that improves the current methods used in the industries like engineering, biotechnology, and chemical engineering (Berman, 2012). The concept is common in the public domain because of its frequent use in the media industry and the newspaper sectors. The application of 3D has evolved from the initial approaches that developed printers to the current strategies that seek to widen the application of 3D to areas that many people may see as magic. These strategies lured innovators to come up with several application of 3D model. Therefore, evaluating the current uses of 3D printing and discussing its potential future will open the gaps for future studies. The essay will assess the application of 3D from a multi-faceted angle; compare the technology with other perspectives and the characteristics of the technology. Importance of 3D printing The main advantage of the 3D printing utilising the concept of effective resource utilisation is the ability to produce customised products. The 3D printing makes it possible to customise the product so that one can be economic in the quantities of the products targeted (Berman, 2012, Campbell, 2012). Although many studies have compared the 3D printing with mass customization, there are some differences between these concepts. For instance, the 3D printing does not rely on the delayed differentiation strategies or the utilisation of several pre-assembled parts of the modular sections, which is common in mass customisation (Berman, 2012, Campbell, 2012). On the other hand, the 3D printing uses CAD application as well as the additive manufacturing technology to carry out the printing of product using laser. The 3D printing uses a process called additive manufacturing that involves the development of products based on layers. It begins with one layer and building the product from several layers of cross-sectional slices until the image attains the required orientation (Bradshaw et al., 2010; Sharma, 2013). The 3D printers use the same approach as the inkjet printers or traditional lasers. However, it uses powdered approach in building the images instead of multiple colours of ink. The printers compatible with 3D printing must use 3D CAD software. Once the image is build, excess resin would be removed from the product using a chemical bath. When printing the product, the 3D printing technology utilises the additive manufacturing approach and the CAD application through the fusion of several materials with lasers. Some of these materials include the ceramics, polymer materials, titanium, the stainless steel, and chromium cobalt materials (Berman, 2012). Comparison of 3D printing with other models The cost of any technology and its integration with the existing software applications are important factors consideration when contemplating the utilisation of such technologies in various sectors of the economy. The distinction between the 3D technologies and other prototyping technologies relates to their cost and the nature of integrating with CAD software. The cost of rapid prototyping machine is almost 50 times higher than the cost of a 3D printer (Berman, 2012, Campbell, 2012). Various manufacturers of 3D printing like the 3D System, Stratasys, Designcraft, and Objet Geometries quotes different pricing for the 3D models (Birtchnell and Urry, 2013). These reports in the literature show that the 3D models are easy to use because of their friendly pricing as opposed to the inhibitory pricing of the rapid prototyping technology (Big Innovation Centre et al., 2012). The other concept relates to the integration of the 3D printer with the magnetic resonance imaging as the digital file and the CAD software. These applications follow the same concepts utilised by the disruptive technologies like those utilised when downloading music and the digital books (Gross et al., 2014). They enable the consumers to make orders for their selection using online strategies and get the product even for the smaller market segments. Analysing application, market trends, and prediction of the 3D printing technology Figure 1: showing the diverse functional application of the 3D printers The above diagram depicts that 3D printing technology has wide application from medical, food, entertainment to fashion. however, the section for do it yourself shows that innovation in this technology is going on. The market segment across the world and the future prediction The diagram below shows that 3D printing technology spans across the world with massive uptake reported from 2007, with high utilisation expected by the end of the decade (2017). The expectation in 2017 will be double the figures reported in 2012 as shown in figure 2 below. Figure 2: showing global market for the 3D printing The prediction for the future of 3D printing technology show that decline in pricing and widening of the application across several fields will lead to the improvement of the material quality. Besides, the technology will improve in speed and performance with these changes hence improving service delivery as shown in figure 3 below Figure 3: showing the predictions for the 3D printing technology Application of 3D printing The application of 3D printing spans across various professions like engineering, biotechnology, and chemical engineering (Berman, 2012). Examples of these applications include the medical or dental applications, the replacement of parts, prototyping, mass customization, and the bridge manufacturing. The application of a 3D model depends on the technical aspects of the 3D application as well as the economic feasibilities. These features depend on the material cost, the complexity of the product, the size of parts, and the volume of production. However, the 3D model has immense utilisation in areas that require complex designs, smaller sizes of particles and low volumes of production (Bradshaw et al., 2010; Sharma, 2013). Although the application of 3D has been increasing, studies report that the cost of 3D printing using the plastic injection mold could run from 50 units to around 5000, and 1000 items respectively (Berman, 2012, Campbell, 2012). Experts projects that the application of 3D printing will increase the efficiency in the near future. However, the current use of 3D printing in medical field has improved service deliver. For instance, medical fields using magnetic resonance imaging and computerised tomography can apply this technology by merging the digital data with the 3D printing approach to model images from the MRI and the CT scan using the computer aided software hence improving the creation of exact replicas of the objects under examination (Berman, 2012). Some of these systems include the utilisation of laminate object manufacturing, the fuse deposition modelling, and the selective laser sintering. These applications are utilised in the chemical industries especially in the chip technology and the macro/microfluidics. Although the applications of rapid prototyping helps in the enhancement of microfluidic fabrication because they do require the use of master replica models, the 3D printing model has made come in handy to solve most of the problems associated with replica modelling (Bradshaw et al., 2010; Sharma, 2013). How the 3D printing save the manufacturing costs Customers demands are increasing from time-to-time, a fact that puts manufactures under duress to meet these customised demands without making their services cost inhibitory. These trends require applications that make it possible for the manufactures to attend to the special needs of the customers and deliver unique products (Birtchnell and Urry, 2013; Gross et al., 2014). The 3D printing model has the feature of customization that would enhance service delivery in line with the changing trends on the customer demands because of the customization feature. The future of 3D printing is projected to improve manufacturing processes and enhance other subsidiaries related to improved manufacturing (Berman, 2012). When customers get products with the exact features that meets their criterion, it improves the business approach and the commercial aspect of the technology (Campbell et al., 2011; Big Innovation Centre et al., 2012). The model provides the option of making smaller modifications without increasing the product pricing hence giving customers affordable yet quality services. These strategies save the cost of production because it saves the material cost (Campbell et al., 2011). Besides, less of the raw material would be thrown away once the final product is attained. The exiting part of this technology is the potential of recycling the existing objects and the powders that were not utilised giving the manufacturers the value in doing 3D printing related businesses (Berman, 2012; Birtchnell and Urry, 2013; Gross et al., 2014). The limitations of 3D printing Despite the immense utilisation of 3D printing model in several industries, the technology has its own fair share of limitations. These include the problems relating to colour stability, resistance to moisture and heating that may limit the strength of the application hence slowing down the process (Campbell, 2012). Besides, it has low precision when compared with other applications. The colours available and the materials are limited, which reduces the potential of increasing the perspectives of surface finished. The technology comes at a high cost making it unavailable to most users (Gross et al., 2014). Conclusion The 3D printing technology has immense utilisation in several thematic areas of research and application. The use of 3D printing in medical and biological application improves the diagnosis because the CT and MRI images can be aligned with 3D application to obtain quality images resembling the original object hence giving the physicians a better approach in carrying out surgical treatment. These applications also spans across industries using chip technologies and macro/microfluidics. However, the technology experiences challenges that need to be strengthened to enhance the utilisation of the 3D printing technology. Reference list Berman, B. (2012). “3-D printing: The new industrial revolution”, Business Horizons, vol. 55, pp. 155-162 Big Innovation Centre, Sisson, A.; Thompson, S (2012) Three Dimensional Policy: Why Britain needs a policy framework for 3D printing, Study of Big Innovation Centre. London Birtchnell, T, and Urry, J. (2013). “3D, SF and the future”, Future, vol. 50, pp. 25-34 Bradshaw, S., Bowyer, A., Haufe, P. (2010) “The Intellectual Property Implications of low-cost 3D Printing” Vol. 7, iss. 1. Pp. 23-34 Campbell, M. (2012). “Absolutely fabricated”, NewScientist, published 15th December, pp. 46-49 Campbell, T., C. Williams, O. Ivanova and B. Garrett (2011). Could 3D Printing Change the World? Technologies, Potential and Implications of Additive Manufacturing, a Strategic Foresight Report from the Atlantic Council. Washington: Gross, BC., Erkal, J.L., Lockwood, S.Y., Chen, C. and Spenc, D.M. (2014). Evaluation of 3D Printing and Its Potential Impact on Biotechnology and the Chemical Sciences, Analytical Chem, vol. 86, pp. 3240-3253. Sharma, R. (2013) “The 3D Printing Revolution You Have Not Heard About”. Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/rakeshsharma/2013/07/08/the-3dprinting-revolution-you-have-not-heard-about/ Read More