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Published at 10 / junio / 2020

Prospects for Industrial 3D Printing | BETWEEN Technology

The 3D printing sector faces the next decade with its sights set on regaining the leading role lost in recent years. After a period of overexpectation, in the early 20th century, in which gurus predicted that we would have 3D printers even in the soup, manufacturers entered a silent period of research and development. This intense work has already begun to bear fruit in the form of industrial 3D printing technologies that will provide a great boost to the design and maintenance of all types of machinery.

What is 3D printing and what is it used for in the industry?

3D printing or additive manufacturing is a technology for creating objects by superimposing layers of a certain material; for example, plastic or metal. It offers splendid possibilities to engineering professionals who are dedicated to R & D & i and product development.

3D printing responds to very specific design needs that mass production is unable to meet. We refer to the almost immediate generation of spare parts for a discontinued product or for a damaged machine.

With industrial 3D printing you can also build prototypes in a simple, cheap and fast way. This allows studying the advantages and weaknesses of a solution before it is released.

If we think about specific applications of additive manufacturing, the clearest example can be found in industries such as the automotive and aeronautics industries. Many vehicles and aircraft will be able to extend their useful life thanks to the infinite availability of spare parts that 3D technology will facilitate.

What types of 3D printers are used in the industry?

In the market we find different types of 3D printers. Some are recommended for private use, while others are intended for business. In the industry, the most used are the following:

  • FDM 3D Printers (Fused Deposition Modeling). FDM is the most popular 3D printing technology overall. It is based on the extrusion of a molten material to create, through the adhesion of layers of adjustable thickness, the desired object. For its feeding we can use coils of thermoplastic or metallic filaments.
  • 3D printers developed with powder bed fusion technologies. This would include EBM (Electron Beam Fusion) and SLS (Selective Laser Sintering). EBMs configure objects by melting metal dust particles using an electron beam; while SLS use the laser to press pre-heated plastic powder.
  • 3D printers based on light curing technologies. They allude to two variants: SLAs (Stereolithography), which solidify via laser, layer by layer, a liquid photopolymer; and DLP (Digital Light Processing), similar to SLAs, but using light (instead of laser) to project an image of the object onto the resin layer to be solidified.
  • BJ 3D Printers (Binder Injection). They work through a head that deposits small doses of a binder material on a layer of powder to compact the desired areas.
  • 3D MJ (Material Injection) Printers. They build objects by placing drops of material that solidify in contact with light on a building board.

impresora-3d

Future prospects for industrial 3D printing

IDC Spain predicts that spending on 3D printing worldwide (for hardware, software, materials and services) will touch 5 billion euros by 2021, accumulating a compound annual growth rate of 15.6% in five years.

Also, according to IDC, companies' MPS (Managed Print Services) hiring will focus on using machine learning and behavioral analysis technologies to improve internal processes and drive paperless offices. By 2023, 60% of this type of purchase will be raised with these objectives.

The consultant predicts that, in a period of between three and five years, four out of 10 manufacturers will have jumped on the bandwagon of industrial 3D printing, with great leadership by the sectors of on-demand production, health and education.

Challenges of industrial 3D printing technology in the coming years

Industrial 3D printing faces two major challenges to establish its viability over the next decade:

1. Lower the costs of large format 3D printing

Printing 3D parts on a large scale requires a significant investment, and not only in the large format printer itself and its maintenance. You also have to take into account the cost of materials, consumables, electrical supply and software, as well as the cost of labor. All this makes up a game that is still unaffordable for the most modest companies; although the prospect is that it will become increasingly affordable.

2. Increase reliability and autonomy

The great dream of industrial 3D printing is to have equipment ready to manufacture parts in series, for long shifts, without supervision and with the certainty that homogeneous results will be obtained. Today, 3D printing requires continuous monitoring if we want to ensure that most products will exceed the established quality threshold.

 

Everything indicates that industrial 3D printing will succeed in overcoming these two challenges in the next decade, as will other fields of engineering. As a sample, let's remember the analysis that we recently presented to you at BETWEEN on the evolution of the autonomy of electric cars.

 

Tags: Ingeniería

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