This production process offers a range of advantages compared to traditional manufacturing methods. These advantages include those related to design, time and cost, amongst others.
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3D printing allows for the design and print of more complex designs than traditional manufacturing processes. More traditional processes have design restrictions which no longer apply with the use of 3D printing.
3D printing can manufacture parts within hours, which speeds up the prototyping process. This allows for each stage to complete faster. When compared to machining prototypes, 3D printing is inexpensive and quicker at creating parts as the part can be finished in hours, allowing for each design modification to be completed at a much more efficient rate.
Print on demand is another advantage as it doesn't need a lot of space to stock inventory, unlike traditional manufacturing processes. This saves space and costs as there is no need to print in bulk unless required.
The 3D design files are all stored in a virtual library as they are printed using a 3D model as either a CAD or STL file, this means they can be located and printed when needed. Edits to designs can be made at very low costs by editing individual files without wastage of out of date inventory and investing in tools.
The main 3D printing material used is plastic, although some metals can also be used for 3D printing. However, plastics offer advantages as they are lighter than their metal equivalents. This is particularly important in industries such as automotive and aerospace where light-weighting is an issue and can deliver greater fuel efficiency.
Also, parts can be created from tailored materials to provide specific properties such as heat resistance, higher strength or water repellency.
Depending on a part's design and complexity, 3D printing can print objects within hours, which is much faster than moulded or machined parts. It is not only the manufacture of the part that can offer time savings through 3D printing but also the design process can be very quick by creating STL or CAD files ready to be printed.
The production of parts only requires the materials needed for the part itself, with little or no wastage as compared to alternative methods which are cut from large chunks of non-recyclable materials. Not only does the process save on resources but it also reduces the cost of the materials being used.
As a single step manufacturing process, 3D printing saves time and therefore costs associated with using different machines for manufacture. 3D printers can also be set up and left to get on with the job, meaning that there is no need for operators to be present the entire time. As mentioned above, this manufacturing process can also reduce costs on materials as it only uses the amount of material required for the part itself, with little or no wastage. While 3D printing equipment can be expensive to buy, you can even avoid this cost by outsourcing your project to a 3D printing service company.
3D printers are becoming more and more accessible with more local service providers offering outsourcing services for manufacturing work. This saves time and doesn't require expensive transport costs compared to more traditional manufacturing processes produced abroad in countries such as China.
As this technology reduces the amount of material wastage used this process is inherently environmentally friendly. However, the environmental benefits are extended when you consider factors such as improved fuel efficiency from using lightweight 3D printed parts.
3D printing is being used in the medical sector to help save lives by printing organs for the human body such as livers, kidneys and hearts. Further advances and uses are being developed in the healthcare sector providing some of the biggest advances from using the technology.
Like with almost any other process there are also drawbacks of 3D printing technology which should be considered before opting to use this process.
While 3D Printing can create items in a selection of plastics and metals the available selection of raw materials is not exhaustive. This is due to the fact that not all metals or plastics can be temperature controlled enough to allow 3D printing. In addition, many of these printable materials cannot be recycled and very few are food safe.
3D printers currently have small print chambers which restrict the size of parts that can be printed. Anything bigger will need to be printed in separate parts and joined together after production. This can increase costs and time for larger parts due to the printer needing to print more parts before manual labour is used to join the parts together.
Although large parts require post-processing, as mentioned above, most 3D printed parts need some form of cleaning up to remove support material from the build and to smooth the surface to achieve the required finish. Post processing methods used include waterjetting, sanding, a chemical soak and rinse, air or heat drying, assembly and others. The amount of post processing required depends on factors including the size of the part being produced, the intended application and the type of 3D printing technology used for production. So, while 3D printing allows for the fast production of parts, the speed of manufacture can be slowed by post processing.
3D printing is a static cost unlike more conventional techniques like injection moulding, where large volumes may be more cost effective to produce. While the initial investment for 3D printing may be lower than other manufacturing methods, once scaled up to produce large volumes for mass production, the cost per unit does not reduce as it would with injection moulding.
With 3D printing (also known as Additive Manufacturing) parts are produced layer-by-layer. Although these layers adhere together it also means that they can delaminate under certain stresses or orientations. This problem is more significant when producing items using fused deposition modelling (FDM), while polyjet and multijet parts also tend to be more brittle. In certain cases it may be better to use injection moulding as it creates homogenous parts that will not separate and break.
Another of the disadvantages of 3D technology is the potential reduction in human labour, since most of the production is automated and done by printers. However, many third world countries rely on low skill jobs to keep their economies running, and this technology could put these manufacturing jobs at risk by cutting out the need for production abroad.
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Another potential problem with 3D printing is directly related to the type of machine or process used, with some printers having lower tolerances, meaning that final parts may differ from the original design. This can be fixed in post processing, but it must be considered that this will further increase the time and cost of production.
As 3D printing is becoming more popular and accessible there is a greater possibility for people to create fake and counterfeit products and it will almost be impossible to tell the difference. This has evident issues around copyright as well as for quality control.
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In traditional manufacturing, the design, development and production processes were usually slow. You had to take great care to get the design just right before any manufacturing could take place. This was inevitably expensive and sometimes stressful. It meant some manufacturers could only roll out a couple of new products a year, limiting the potential for expanding product lines.
This situation is changing radically with the advent of Industry 4.0 and increased integration of 3D printing technology, or additive manufacturing. It means even smaller companies can greatly speed up their product development process.
The rapid evolution of 3D printing technology has made it faster, more automated and capable of greater production volumes. Developments have reached a point where the technology offers manufacturers significant production value. It means manufacturing costs can be significantly reduced in all aspects of manufacturing, all the way from R&D to actual production.
Here are some ways in which 3D printing lowers the cost of product development:
Perhaps the greatest advantage of 3D printing technology is the cost saved in prototyping. Rapid prototyping is still one of the main uses for additive manufacturing. Prototypes that used to cost hundreds can now be made for a fraction of that cost, so even small-scale businesses can actively pursue product development.
In the past, product design engineers would start with very basic mock-ups, which a professional developer would use to produce a more refined functional prototype. 3D printing is based on digital technologies, so all this is now done by computer modelling. You only have to alter the CAD data to make a fresh iteration of a prototype. This means you can make multiple iterations much more cheaply and rapidly than by conventional manufacturing techniques. This leads to an accelerated product development phase, as corrections and improvements to a design can be made early on.
Another way 3D printing lowers the costs of product development is by reducing the amount of labour required. Before now, models, tooling and prototype parts all had to be made manually or by operating a machine. This could be very expensive and labour-intensive, especially in applications using metals. However, some companies are now offering cost-effective 3D printed prototype solutions, even for metal. Prototypes can be printed from CAD files as soon as theyre complete. As a result, the production time for prototypes is reduced from weeks to hours and labour costs are much less.
3D printing also lowers the costs of product development by reducing the amount of raw materials required. 3D printing is the common term for additive manufacturing, which means adding raw materials layer by layer. The printer only uses what is required to print, dramatically reducing material waste. Traditional manufacturing methods are subtractive, cutting or whittling away excess material, and typically producing more waste. This makes 3D printing more resource-efficient, especially when using high-value materials.
The technique also allows you to use less material to produce any given part. A good example of this is metal lightweighting, which uses 3D printing technologies to make metal parts lighter. In some industries like motorsports or aerospace, weight to speed ratio is critical, so that even one ounce saved could represent significant economies.
Reducing weight with subtractive manufacturing requires the more expensive removal of material from a part. Cutting, drilling and machining add to the work required and thus mean extra cost. With 3D printing , this process is reversed: the lighter the part, the more cost-effective and rapid the production process.
The versatility of 3D printing also makes it more cost-effective. Now that design engineers work digitally, the designs can be infinitely variable. This means that customised designs are less pricey. We see that you can use your 3D printer in the development stage to create multiple iterations of a prototype cheaper and faster.
You can also modify any existing products digital file, with very little time or expense. Manufacturers like Nike and Gillette are now able to offer personalised products to customers, with minimal additional cost to the main production line items.
Furthermore, a 3D printer is able to produce a wide variety of different items. A single machine using digital models can create practically any product. You no longer need customised moulds for unusual or special order objects. Traditionally such products like, for example, surgical instruments, prosthetic limbs or human tissue would incur high individual costs. With additive manufacturing, such items will cost roughly the same to produce as any other item using the same amount of raw material.
3D printing allows affordable customisation and offers new horizons for product designers and engineers. With no restrictions on tooling and material stress parameters, they can experiment with more complex designs. Additive manufacturing permits geometries that arent feasible with any other manufacturing method. Forward-thinking companies can continue to maintain product innovation while still achieving cost savings in development.
One way this has been demonstrated is with part consolidation, where developing products for additive manufacturing has proved really cost-effective. Instead of producing and assembling multiple components to create a final part, 3D printing can print the whole thing as a single, integrated part. This allows manufacturers to make significant cost savings, such as the labour costs of assembly. Maintenance costs are also lower, as the product performance is better and inventory costs are lower as you need fewer individual components.
3D printing lowers the cost and saves time in the overall development process. Other aspects of production using additive manufacturing allow businesses a host of additional benefits. These include low volume and on-demand production, especially of obsolete parts. The agility of design and versatility of production make 3D printing useful to practically any business where physical product development is required.
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