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What is 3D Printing?

3D printing or condiment manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file.

The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using condiment processes. In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of fabric until the object is created. Each of these layers tin can be seen as a thinly sliced cross-section of the object.

3D printing is the opposite of subtractive manufacturing which is cutting out / hollowing out a piece of metal or plastic with for instance a milling machine.

3D printing enables you to produce complex shapes using less textile than traditional manufacturing methods.

How Does 3D Printing Work?

It all starts with a 3D model. You lot can opt to create one from the basis upwardly or download it from a 3D library.

3D Software

In that location are many different software tools available. From industrial grade to open source. We've created an overview on our 3D software page.

Nosotros oft recommend beginners to start with Tinkercad. Tinkercad is free and works in your browser, yous don't have to install it on your estimator. Tinkercad offers beginner lessons and has a built-in characteristic to export your model equally a printable file e.g .STL or .OBJ.

Now that you have a printable file, the next step is to prepare it for your 3D printer. This is called slicing.

Slicing: From printable file to 3D Printer

Slicing basically means slicing upward a 3D model into hundreds or thousands of layers and is washed with slicing software.

When your file is sliced, it'south fix for your 3D printer. Feeding the file to your printer can be done via USB, SD or Wi-Fi. Your sliced file is at present ready to be 3D printed layer past layer.

3D Printing Manufacture

Adoption of 3D press has reached critical mass as those who take yet to integrate additive manufacturing somewhere in their supply chain are now function of an always-shrinking minority. Where 3D press was merely suitable for prototyping and one-off manufacturing in the early stages, it is now rapidly transforming into a production technology.

Most of the current demand for 3D printing is industrial in nature. Acumen Research and Consulting forecasts the global 3D printing market to reach $41 billion by 2026.

Every bit it evolves, 3D printing engineering science is destined to transform about every major industry and modify the way we alive, piece of work, and play in the future.

Examples of 3D Printing

3D printing encompasses many forms of technologies and materials as 3D printing is being used in most all industries you could recall of. It'due south of import to see it as a cluster of diverse industries with a myriad of different applications.

A few examples:

– consumer products (eyewear, footwear, pattern, piece of furniture)
– industrial products (manufacturing tools, prototypes, functional cease-use parts)
– dental products
– prosthetics
– architectural scale models & maquettes
– reconstructing fossils
– replicating aboriginal artefacts
– reconstructing evidence in forensic pathology
– picture show props

Rapid Prototyping & Rapid Manufacturing

Companies accept used 3D printers in their design process to create prototypes since the tardily seventies. Using 3D printers for these purposes is called rapid prototyping.

Why apply 3D Printers for Rapid Prototyping?
In short: it's fast and relatively cheap. From idea, to 3D model to holding a prototype in your hands is a affair of days instead of weeks. Iterations are easier and cheaper to make and yous don't need expensive molds or tools.

Besides rapid prototyping, 3D press is likewise used for rapid manufacturing. Rapid manufacturing is a new method of manufacturing where businesses utilise 3D printers for short run / minor batch custom manufacturing.

Automotive

Car manufacturers have been utilizing 3D printing for a long time. Automotive companies are printing spare parts, tools, jigs and fixtures but as well end-utilize parts. 3D press has enabled on-need manufacturing which has lead to lower stock levels and has shortened design and production cycles.

Automotive enthusiasts all over the earth are using 3D printed parts to restore old cars. I such case is when Australian engineers printed parts to bring a Delage Type-C back to life. In doing so, they had to print parts that were out of production for decades.

Aviation

The aviation manufacture uses 3D press in many different means. The following case marks a significant 3D printing manufacturing milestone: GE Aviation has 3D printed thirty,000 Cobalt-chrome fuel nozzles for its Spring aircraft engines. They accomplished that milestone in October of 2018, and considering that they produce 600 per week on twoscore 3D printers, information technology's likely much higher than that now.

Around twenty individual parts that previously had to be welded together were consolidated into one 3D printed component that weighs 25% less and is five times stronger. The LEAP engine is the best selling engine in the aerospace industry due to its high level of efficiency and GE saves $three one thousand thousand per aircraft past 3D printing the fuel nozzles, so this single 3D printed office generates hundreds of millions of dollars of fiscal benefit.

GE's fuel nozzles as well fabricated their manner into the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, simply it'due south non the merely 3D printed office in the 787. The 33-centimeter-long structural fittings that hold the aft kitchen galley to the airframe are 3D printed by a company called Norsk Titanium. Norsk chose to specialize in titanium because it has a very high strength-to-weight ratio and is rather expensive, pregnant the reduction in waste enabled by 3D printing has a more significant financial impact than compared to cheaper metals where the costs of material waste are easier to blot. Rather than sintering metal powder with a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation like most metallic 3D printers, the Norsk Merke 4 uses a plasma arc to cook a metal wire in a process chosen Rapid Plasma Degradation (a form of Directed Free energy Degradation) that tin deposit upward to 10kg of titanium per hour. A 2kg titanium function would generally require a 30kg block of titanium to machine it from, generating 28kg of waste material, but 3D printing the aforementioned part requires only 6kg of titanium wire.

Construction

Is information technology possible to print a edifice? – yes it is. 3D printed houses are already commercially bachelor. Some companies impress parts prefab and others exercise it on-site.

Most of the physical printing stories we look at on this website are focused on large scale concrete printing systems with fairly large nozzles for a large flow rate. It's great for laying down concrete layers in a fairly quick and repeatable manner. Simply for truly intricate concrete work that makes full use of the capabilities of 3D printing requires something a lilliputian more than nimble, and with a finer touch on.

Consumer Products

When we outset started blogging nigh 3D press dorsum in 2011, 3D printing wasn't ready to be used every bit a production method for large volumes. Nowadays there are numerous examples of terminate-use 3D printed consumer products.

Footwear

Adidas' 4D range has a fully 3D printed midsole and is being printed in large volumes. We did an article back then, explaining how Adidas were initially releasing just 5,000 pairs of the shoes to the public, and had aimed to sell 100,000 pairs of the AM-infused designs by 2018.

With their latest iterations of the shoe, it seems that they have surpassed that goal, or are on their way to surpassing it. The shoes are bachelor all around the globe from local Adidas stores and also from diverse 3rd party online outlets.

Eyewear

The market of 3D printed eyewear is forecasted to attain $3.4 billion by 2028. A chop-chop increasing section is that of cease-use frames. 3D printing is a particularly suitable production method for eyewear frames because the measurements of an individual are easy to process in the finish product.

But did you know it's as well possible to 3D print lenses? Traditional glass lenses don't start out thin and light; they're cut from a much larger block of material called a blank, about 80% of which goes to waste. When we consider how many people vesture spectacles and how ofttimes they need to get a new pair, 80% of those numbers is a lot of waste. On top of that, labs take to keep huge inventories of blanks to meet the custom vision needs of their clients. Finally, notwithstanding, 3D printing engineering science has advanced enough to provide loftier-quality, custom ophthalmic lenses, doing abroad with the waste and inventory costs of the by. The Luxexcel VisionEngine 3D printer uses a UV-curable acrylate monomer to print two pairs of lenses per hour that require no polishing or post-processing of any kind. The focal areas can also be completely customized and then that a certain area of the lens can provide better clarity at a distance while a different area of the lens provides better vision up close.

Jewelry

There are 2 ways of producing jewelry with a 3D printer. Y'all tin either use a direct or indirect production process. Direct refers to the cosmos of an object direct from the 3D design while indirect manufacturing means that the object (pattern) that is 3D printed eventually is used to create a mold for investment casting.

Healthcare

It's non uncommon these days to run across headlines about 3D printed implants. Often, those cases are experimental, which can make information technology seem similar 3D press is still a fringe engineering in the medical and healthcare sectors, but that's not the case anymore. Over the last decade, more than 100,000 hip replacements take been 3D printed by GE Additive.

The Delta-TT Loving cup designed by Dr. Guido Grappiolo and LimaCorporate is made of Trabecular Titanium, which is characterized by a regular, three-dimensional, hexagonal prison cell structure that imitates trabecular bone morphology. The trabecular structure increases the biocompatibility of the titanium by encouraging bone growth into the implant. Some of the first Delta-TT implants are still running strong over a decade later.

Another 3D printed healthcare component that does a proficient chore of being undetectable is the hearing assist. Nearly every hearing assistance in the last 17 years has been 3D printed thank you to a collaboration between Materialise and Phonak. Phonak adult Rapid Shell Modeling (RSM) in 2001. Prior to RSM, making one hearing aid required nine laborious steps involving hand sculpting and mold making, and the results were often sick-fitting. With RSM, a technician uses silicone to take an impression of the ear canal, that impression is 3D scanned, and after some minor tweaking the model is 3D printed with a resin 3D printer. The electronics are added and and then information technology'south shipped to the user. Using this process, hundreds of thousands of hearing aids are 3D printed each year.

Dental

In the dental industry, we see molds for clear aligners existence possibly the most 3D printed objects in the earth. Currently, the molds are 3D printed with both resin and pulverisation based 3D printing processes, only besides via fabric jetting. Crowns and dentures are already directly 3D printed, along with surgical guides.

Bio-printing

Equally of the early two-thousands 3D printing technology has been studied by biotech firms and academia for possible use in tissue technology applications where organs and body parts are congenital using inkjet techniques. Layers of living cells are deposited onto a gel medium and slowly built up to form 3 dimensional structures. Nosotros refer to this field of research with the term: bio-printing.

Nutrient

Additive manufacturing invaded the food manufacture long time ago. Restaurants like Food Ink and Melisse apply this as a unique selling bespeak to attract customers from across the earth.

Education

Educators and students have long been using 3D printers in the classroom. 3D printing enables students to materialize their ideas in a fast and affordable way.

While additive manufacturing-specific degrees are adequately new, universities have long been using 3D printers in other disciplines. There are many educational courses one tin can accept to engage with 3D printing. Universities offering courses on things that are adjacent to 3D printing like CAD and 3D blueprint, which can be applied to 3D printing at a certain stage.

In terms of prototyping, many academy programs are turning to printers. At that place are specializations in additive manufacturing one can attain through compages or industrial design degrees. Printed prototypes are likewise very common in the arts, animation and fashion studies as well.

Types of 3D Printing Technologies and Processes

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), developed a ready of standards that allocate condiment manufacturing processes into seven categories. These are:

Vat Photopolymerisation
1. Stereolithography (SLA)
2. Digital Light Processing (DLP)
3. Continuous Liquid Interface Product (Prune)
Material Jetting
Binder Jetting
Fabric Extrusion
1. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
2. Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)
Powder Bed Fusion
1. Multi Jet Fusion (MJF)
2. Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
3. Directly Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS)
Canvass Lamination
Directed Energy Deposition

Vat Photopolymerisation

A 3D printer based on the Vat Photopolymerisation method has a container filled with photopolymer resin. The resin is hardened with a UV light source.

Stereolithography (SLA)

SLA was invented in 1986 by Charles Hull, who also at the time founded the company, 3D Systems. Stereolithography employs a vat of liquid curable photopolymer resin and an ultraviolet laser to build the object's layers i at a time. For each layer, the light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation beam traces a cantankerous-department of the office pattern on the surface of the liquid resin. Exposure to the ultraviolet light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation light cures and solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and fuses it to the layer below.

After the blueprint has been traced, the SLA's elevator platform descends past a distance equal to the thickness of a single layer, typically 0.05 mm to 0.15 mm (0.002″ to 0.006″). Then, a resin-filled blade sweeps across the cantankerous section of the role, re-blanket it with fresh fabric. On this new liquid surface, the subsequent layer pattern is traced, joining the previous layer. Depending on the object & print orientation, SLA frequently requires the utilize of support structures.

Digital Calorie-free Processing (DLP)

DLP or Digital Light Processing refers to a method of printing that makes employ of lite and photosensitive polymers. While it is very similar to SLA, the central difference is the light source. DLP utilizes other light sources like arc lamps. DLP is relatively quick compared to other 3D printing technologies.

Continuous Liquid Interface Product (Clip)

One of the fastest processes using Vat Photopolymerisation is called Clip, short for Continuous Liquid Interface Production, adult by Carbon.

Digital Calorie-free Synthesis

The eye of the Clip procedure is Digital Low-cal Synthesis technology. In this engineering, light from a custom high performance LED light engine projects a sequence of UV images exposing a cross section of the 3D printed part causing the UV curable resin to partially cure in a precisely controlled manner. Oxygen passes through the oxygen permeable window creating a thin liquid interface of uncured resin between the window and the printed office known as the dead zone. The dead zone is equally thin as 10 of microns. Within the dead zone, oxygen prohibits light from curing the resin situated closest to the window therefore allowing the continuous flow of liquid beneath the printed function. Merely to a higher place the dead zone the UV projected calorie-free upwards causes a pour like curing of the office.

Just printing with Carbon's hardware lone does not allow for end utilise properties with real world applications. Once the low-cal has shaped the part, a second programmable curing procedure achieves the desired mechanical properties by blistering the 3d printed part in a thermal bath or oven. Programmed thermal curing sets the mechanical properties past triggering a secondary chemical reaction causing the material to strengthen achieving the desired final properties.

Components printed with Carbon's engineering are on par with injection molded parts. Digital Light Synthesis produces consistent and predictable mechanical backdrop, creating parts that are truly isotropic.

Material Jetting

In this procedure, textile is applied in droplets through a small diameter nozzle, like to the way a common inkjet paper printer works, but it is practical layer-by-layer to a build platform and then hardened by UV light.

Binder Jetting

With binder jetting two materials are used: pulverization base of operations material and a liquid binder. In the build chamber, powder is spread in equal layers and binder is practical through jet nozzles that "glue" the powder particles in the required shape. After the print is finished, the remaining pulverization is cleaned off which often can be re-used press the adjacent object. This technology was first developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993.

Cloth Extrusion

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

fdm process — FDM schematics (Image credit: Wikipedia, made past user Zureks)

FDM works using a plastic filament which is unwound from a spool and is supplied to an extrusion nozzle which tin turn the flow on and off. The nozzle is heated to melt the material and can exist moved in both horizontal and vertical directions by a numerically controlled mechanism. The object is produced by extruding melted material to form layers equally the fabric hardens immediately after extrusion from the nozzle.

FDM was invented past Scott Crump in the late lxxx's. After patenting this engineering he started the visitor Stratasys in 1988. The term Fused Deposition Modeling and its abbreviation to FDM are trademarked by Stratasys Inc.

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)

The exactly equivalent term, Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), was coined by the members of the RepRap project to give a phrase that would be legally unconstrained in its use.

Powder Bed Fusion

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

SLS uses a high ability laser to fuse minor particles of powder into a mass that has the desired three dimensional shape. The laser selectively fuses powder by first scanning the cross-sections (or layers) on the surface of a pulverisation bed. After each cross-section is scanned, the pulverisation bed is lowered by i layer thickness. Then a new layer of material is applied on top and the procedure is repeated until the object is completed.

SLS process — SLS schematics (Prototype credit: Wikipedia from user Materialgeeza)

Multi Jet Fusion (MJF)

Multi Jet Fusion engineering science was developed by Hewlett Packard and works with a sweeping arm which deposits a layer of pulverisation so another arm equipped with inkjets which selectively applies a binder agent over the cloth. The inkjets as well eolith a detailing amanuensis around the binder to ensure precise dimensionality and smooth surfaces. Finally, the layer is exposed to a outburst of thermal energy that causes the agents to react.

Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS)

DMLS is basically the aforementioned equally SLS, but uses metal powder instead. All unused powder remains as it is and becomes a back up construction for the object. Unused powder tin be re-used for the adjacent print.

Due to of increased laser power, DMLS has evolved into a laser melting process. Read more well-nigh that and other metal technologies on our metal technologies overview page.

Sheet Lamination

Sheet lamination involves material in sheets which is bound together with external force. Sheets can be metallic, newspaper or a form of polymer. Metallic sheets are welded together by ultrasonic welding in layers and so CNC milled into a proper shape. Paper sheets tin can be used also, but they are glued past adhesive mucilage and cutting in shape past precise blades.

Simplified schematics of ultrasonic sheet metal process (Image credit: Wikipedia from user Mmrjf3)

Directed Energy Deposition

This procedure is mostly used in the metal industry and in rapid manufacturing applications. The 3D printing apparatus is usually fastened to a multi-axis robotic arm and consists of a nozzle that deposits metal powder or wire on a surface and an energy source (laser, electron beam or plasma arc) that melts it, forming a solid object.

DED process — Directed Free energy Deposition with metal powder and laser melting (Epitome credit: Merlin project)

Materials

Multiple materials tin can exist used in additive manufacturing: plastics, metals, concrete, ceramics, paper and sure edibles (eastward.g. chocolate). Materials are often produced in wire feedstock a.thou.a. filament, powder form or liquid resin. Learn more nigh our featured materials on our materials page.

Services

Looking to implement 3D press in your product procedure? Get a quote for a custom office or order samples on our 3D print service page.

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