![]() ![]() The parts need to be certified, especially for highly regulated industries like aerospace. Nonetheless, there are obstacles to overcome for 3D printing to be viable for end-use items. Indeed, 3D printing technologies can increase part strength and resistance while employing lighter materials. This is also the case in aerospace, where weight optimization is of utmost importance. Some automotive brands, for example, utilize additive manufacturing to produce certain parts of a car's interior or motor components. With some post-processing, today's industrial-grade 3D printed parts are of such good quality, and industrials can use them directly. On a lighter note, these benefits could apply to normal, more fortunate situations in various industries, including Aerospace, Automotive, Education, Oil & Gas, Medical, and the list goes on. This immediate response was highly effective in the fight against the virus and perfectly illustrates the potential, adaptability, and speed (time-to-market) that additive manufacturing offers. Respirators, swabs, and face shields were designed in a matter of days and mass-produced by the thousands in just a few weeks.ģD models continuously evolved according to gradual feedback from doctors and researchers. ![]() The world recently witnessed one of the most impressive demonstrations during the global coronavirus pandemic. Called also rapid prototyping, you quickly design a model and 3D print shortly after. Prototyping is the most common use for 3D printing in the professional world. Thanks to a large number of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies available and the diversity of compatible 3D printing materials, an almost infinite range of applications exist with 3D printing. However, this technology presents the strongest advantages for professional use cases, which this article will focus on. Scientists and biologists are experimenting with 3D bioprinting, chefs can have a go at food 3D printing, and contractors are increasingly looking into concrete 3D printing.Ĭonsumer-wise, 3D printing can help create personalized trinkets and decorations, practical household objects, figurines, and more. Some niche 3D printing materials are gaining popularity, too. It is even possible to reinforce thermoplastics with carbon fiber or glass fiber. The most common 3D printing materials are plastic-based, ranging from standard PLA to advanced, highly resistant polymers such as PEEK or PEI, and much more. It is possible to 3D print with almost any material. This technology also offers many 3D printing material possibilities. Prototyping-which is one of the most popular professional uses for 3D printing-can be done in-house with little to no lead time, and design iterations can be implemented and printed on the spot. Although 3D Printing an object can take hours or even entire days, it is still much faster than mainstream production methods such as injection molding. Why use 3D Printing?ģD Printing offers a considerable number of advantages, the most significant one being the ability to produce highly complex designs that would be impossible to make otherwise.Īnother significant benefit of 3D printing is speed. These 3D printing technologies each have their own strengths and weaknesses and can adapt to different use cases and industries. Material or binder jetting, where tiny droplets of material are deposited onto a bed of powder.PBF (powder bed fusion), a range of powder-based methods that fuse particles with powerful lasers.SLA (stereolithography), a technology that solidifies the photosensitive resin.FFF (fused filament fabrication) or FDM (fused deposition modeling), which use spools of filament.The leading 3D printing technologies available today are: There are different ways to 3D print objects. The layers are consecutively 3D printed one at a time until you obtain the fully printed object. For example, if you were 3D Printing a pyramid, the first layer (bottom) would be a flat square, and the last layer (at the very top) would be a tiny dot. This 3D printing format is a language that the 3D printer reads to know precisely when and where to deposit material.Įach layer corresponds to the exact 2D shape of one section or slice of the object. How does 3D printing work?Ī digital 3D model is sliced into hundreds of thin layers by dedicated software to export in G-code format. While 3D printing started out as a slow and costly technique, extensive technological developments have made today’s AM technologies more affordable and faster than ever. This technology has been around for about four decades, invented in the early 1980s. 3D Printing is called additive manufacturing (AM) instead of traditional subtractive methods like CNC milling when used for industrial production. 3D Printing is the process of creating objects by depositing layers of material on top of one another. ![]()
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