When Print Starts Manufacturing

In less than 5 years, we all have got used to multi-touch functions on devices whether it's a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, or a notebook. Similarly, another major and disruptive product category that has the potential to change everything around us is the 3D printer. 3D printers are quietly making their ways into the mainstream of design and manufacturing from consumer to industrial to mission critical products. According to the Wohlers Report, 3D printing will become a $5.2 bn industry by 2020, a 4X growth during this decade.

Imagine if you could print the actual product you have just designed on your computer system and touch and feel it within minutes of the design completion. That's what 3D printers provide. It's not only giving shape to the products faster, but also reducing the iterative time between the design and manufacturing process.

Multiple Segments

Today, usage of 3D printers is taking place across multiple product segments like hi-tech, consumer, medical, industrial, fashion and retail, sportswear, and automotive components among others. The research arm of EADS is using 3D printing to create advanced aircraft parts that are made of titanium, a very heavy and expensive metal. If their ambitions are met, the day is not far when entire aircraft wings will be made out of appropriate sized 3D printers.

Eventually, this will also mark a dramatic shift in the use of these technologies. The use of these printers will not stay limited to prototypes only, they will certainly expand to create actual parts or complete products that need high amount of customization, use expensive materials, and have complex design elements. Industry analysts estimate that by 2020, 50% of the final prints of these printers will be the products and not prototypes - up from 20% in 2011.

The fundamental operating principles of 3D printers are not very different from the inkjet or laser printers that are widely used today. Conceptually, a 3D printer prints a large number of surfaces that are cross sections of the total design and glues them together. These cross sections are created by the printing software that takes the 3D design and splits it into a large number of printable surfaces.

The key difference is the 'ink' that's used by the 3D printers. Based on the requirement, it can be extreme metals like powdered titanium or simple molten plastic that's glued either with a binding material or is simmered together by a laser beam.

A regular manufacturing process is subtractive by nature. It takes one or more blocks of the appropriate material (metal, plastic, etc) and cuts, drills, or mills it into the relevant shapes, as required by the design. 3D printing, on the other hand, is an additive process; it takes particles and glues them together to create the final product.

This also eliminates the need of an elaborate production line that once established only specializes in the production of a single component of a certain shape and size. It not only saves the establishment cost, but experts believe it can reduce the time from digital design to prototype by approximately 50-80%.

3D printing though still largely niche in its practical applications is fast becoming mainstream for consumer as well as industrial products. There are many companies around the world which offer exclusive 3D printed designs. One among them, Freedom of Creation (FOC), an Amsterdam based company, has furniture, jewelry, and even iPhone cases that are exclusive 3D printed. Within Technologies, a London based company, has concept created radical heat exchangers with the use of 3D printers that has unique internal designs and yet can be customized to shape that different car manufacturers can use.

The Price Factor

Pricing for 3D printers have come down substantially over the last 10 years, many of them now retail at $1,000 or even lower. It's quickly moving from being in the lab and commercial establishments to consumers, which is where it's expected to see wide adoption over the next 2-5 years.

This will create a far more meritocratic digital manufacturing process that'll thrive on innovation and not on entry barriers. At the same time the product life cycles will become even shorter due to accelerated pace of innovation. It'll also create a greener production process and a greener final product with optimized use of materials. Clearly, the best days of 3D printing are ahead of us as it opens up numerous possibilities both for the consumers and industrial products.

SANDEEP KISHORE
The author is executive vice president &
global head, sales and practice,
engineering and R&D services, HCL Technologies
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in