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November 25, 2021 By Sam in 3D Printing in Manufacturing Industry, Industry 4.0
3D Printing Industrial Applications: How Is It Driving Innovation?
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October 16, 2021 By Sam in 3D Printing in Medical Industry
How 3D Printed Casts Are Accelerating Faster Recovery
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August 27, 2021 By Sam in 3D Printing in Medical Industry
3D Printing Prosthetics — The Future of Better Living
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September 9, 2020 By Sam in 3D Printing in Automobile Industry
How Is 3D Printing Disrupting the Automotive Industry?
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July 23, 2020 By Sam in 3D Printing in Medical Industry
How to select between 3D printing processes for Medical Industry
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June 2, 2020 By Sam in 3D Printing in Manufacturing Industry, Rapid Prototyping Services
How To Select Between 3D Printing Processes for Manufacturing Industry (Part 1)
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December 5, 2019 By Sam in 3D Printing in Mining Industry
Benefits of 3D Printing Technology for Mining Industry
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November 4, 2019 By Sam in 3D Printing in Medical Industry
The Blessing that is 3D Printing in Medical Industry
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September 19, 2019 By Sam in 3D Printing in Education Industry
3D Printing in Education: Straddling Digital and Physical Worlds
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June 3, 2019 By Sam in 3D Printing in Medical Industry
Producing Transparent Braces With The Help of 3D Printing
3D printing or additive manufacturing is a modern production method that creates 3D objects in a layer-by-layer style taking references from a CAD design file. It's an additive process in which the material or filament's layers are visible if observed closely. This advanced method is the opposite of conventional methods that are based on 'subtractive manufacturing' techniques.
This robust technology is widely used in several industries for creating prototypes, and custom parts of high complexities. Be it creating functional models or decorative items, 3d printing can complete the job with accurate finishing.
3d printing is a broad domain and there are almost nine major types of 3D printing technologies available in the market which are:
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
Stereolithography (SLA)
Digital Light Processing (DLP)
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
Material Jetting (MJ)
Sand Binder Jetting
Selective Laser Melting (SLM)
Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS)
Electron Beam Melting (EBM)
All these advanced technologies are widely used for online 3d print and rapid prototyping services in many industries.
The 3d printing process starts with creating a digital 3d model of design using CAD 3d software like Sketchup or n360 that is going to be 3d printed. The CAD file contains all the geometrical details about the design. After this, the step is digitally slicing the 3d model to get it ready for additive manufacturing. Slicing helps in establishing communication between the design and 3d printer. After processing the design through the slicing process, the final output file called 'STL file' is sent to the 3d printer. Once the STL file is processed, the machine starts 3d printing the object.
The rapid Prototyping method could be defined as quickly validating and fabricating the new design. It facilitates the quick fabrication of design. These prototype services are widely employed in numerous industries. Rapid prototyping lets engineers draft complex designs faster that are not possible in a conventional manner.
Rapid manufacturing could be defined as a group of different robust manufacturing processes that deliver faster, accurate, and flexible production. Some of the common techniques are CNC, solid freeform manufacturing, direct digital manufacturing and more. The main difference here is that rapid prototyping will only deliver faster designs but the rapid manufacturing process will directly produce the object.
There are several 3D printing advantages that are transforming the entire manufacturing domain. Some of the key pros of 3D printing are:
• Higher product design customization along with durability
• Cost-effective alternative to several conventional manufacturing processes
• Rapid and more accurate production
• 3D printing applications solve problems for a wide range of industries
• Wide range of material options available for printing
Some of the multi-trillion dollar industries using 3d printing technology are:
• Automotive
• Aerospace
• Manufacturing
• Robotics
• Healthcare
• Education
Along with these, there are many consumer-centric industries like fashion, art, and jewellery that are also leveraging additive manufacturing technology.
In 3D printing technology, there are several techniques that are used for various purposes and specific applications. Below are the high-performance technologies used in 3d printing process:
• Stereolithography (SLA)
• Digital Light Processing (DLP)
• Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
• Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
• Selective Laser Melting (SLM)
• Electronic Beam Melting (EBM)
• Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS)
• Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)
Additive manufacturing is a vast technology and it offers support of several materials. Some of the widely employed 3D printing materials that deliver high-quality 3d print are:
• PLA (Polylactic Acid)
• Nylon (Polyamide)
• ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene)
• Resin
• Stainless steel
• Titanium
• Ceramics
• PET/PETG
• HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene), and many more
SLA 3D Printing is a widely used commercial 3d printing technology that is used to craft complex geometries and 3d models. This 3D printing process is ideal for rapid prototyping with a wide selection of materials and high-quality surface finish. SLA process uses a powerful laser to solidify liquid resin that is stored in a tank to produce the desired 3D shape. SLA printing turns photosensitive resins into 3D solid objects. SLA offers the most accurate dimensional tolerances of any type of rapid prototyping.
SLS 3D Printing or Selective Laser Sintering employs a powder bed fusion method to produce 3D objects of high quality and accuracy. SLS 3d printed parts are created using thermoplastic fibres and are perfect for functional testing. The objects produced using this additive manufacturing have coarse surface touch and it doesn't need support structures while manufacturing.
This method's most significant utility is that it can create multiple parts into a particular build hence it is suitable for producing parts in multiple volumes. The SLS process is perfect for small and medium batch manufacturing with complex design geometries.
FDM 3D Printing is a popular and widely-employed rapid prototyping method that allows fast, accurate and cost-effective production of prototypes and small functional elements. This desktop 3D printing technology operates through a CAD-based design file, which is inserted into an FDM system. The system gives design commands to a controller's head and it ejects the dissolved filament as per the design. This process is performed in a layer by layer manner with reference to the pre-defined geometries. The melted filament turns into a solid plastic object when disclosed to a cooler atmosphere. FDM is an efficient plastic 3d printing technique used in various product manufacturing companies.
PolyJet 3D printing is a strong 3d printing technology that can produce 3d objects that are smooth and accurate. This printing technology is ideal for producing high-quality prototypes and tooling. This MultiJet 3D printing technique produces objects by sprinkling photopolymer droplets on the additive printing bed and the particles are then hardened using a powerful UV light.
PolyJet 3D printing offers an accuracy of 0.014 mm, it can create thin walls and intricate geometries using the wide range of filaments available with any technology.
Metal 3d printing is among the newest and powerful 3d printing technology and it is used in industries for Creating intricate-design 3d metal objects. With metal 3d printing technology, designers can create complex tooling components that can be utilised in conventional production. Metal printing helps in decreasing lead times and offers professional-grade quality.
The 3d metal parts created with this method are both functional and non-functional that can be applied in various applications. 3d metal additive manufacturing technologies used for this method are Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM). This 3d printing technology brings robust design accuracy with excellent functional properties.
Metal 3d printing offers various benefits that are changing the whole industrial production standards. Some of the key benefits of metal 3d additive manufacturing are:
Highly customizable - Metal 3d printing let designers to product complicated geometries without negotiating the durability of the items.
Faster turnaround time - As compared to the traditional manufacturing methods, metal 3d printing can produce final products with faster turnaround time.
Material wastage is low - The material wastage while producing 3D printed metal parts is lower as compared to the conventional subtractive techniques.
3d metal printing is commonly employed in several industries and below are the different types of metal additive manufacturing:
Direct Energy Deposition
Powder DED
Wire DED
Powder Bed Fusion
Selective Laser Melting (SLM)
Electron Beam Melting (EBM)
Binder Jetting
Bound Powder Extrusion
There are many excellent applications of 3d metal printing in various industries and these uses are much more capable than conventional production methods. Some of the 3d metal printing applications are:
Tooling equipment manufacturing
Functional metal prototypes
End-of-arm tooling
Intricate bracketry manufacturing
Low-volume end-use parts
There are fundamentally four types of metal 3d printing supplies available, however, designers can create custom materials by mixing two or more than two materials. The widely-used metal 3d printing materials are:
Stainless steel
Aluminium
Inconel
Titanium
All these materials have their distinctive strength characteristics and are used in various industrial applications.
The 3d metal printing utilizes powder bed methods in which the metal filament is in powdered form and is mixed to produce complex parts. In another method, the 3d printing machine employs a powerful laser that heats up the filament and then produces a solid form of the item.
The printers deliver the metal parts in a continuous way and once the items are made, they are sent for post-production operation. Depending on what element and method are used for printing, the turnaround time also changes according to that.
Metal 3d printing is among the widely-used technology of the additive manufacturing domain. This robust technology can be broadly divided into two sections. The first section is the powder bed technologies and the second section is Laser Metal Deposition methods. Both types of metal additive manufacturing technologies have unique characteristics that are suitable for various industrial services.
In the powder bed 3D method, the metal powder is blended over a bed and then the components are produced additively. On the other side, in the laser metal deposition methods, the 3d printer heats up the metal powder to produce an item. Along with these two traditional categories, Binder Jetting, and casting are also extensively used metal 3d printing methods.
Selective Laser Melting (SLM) additive manufacturing is extensively used for manufacturing metal alloys. In this manufacturing method, a strong laser sinters the metal filament in a layer-by-layer fashion and makes the shape as per the 3d CAD file. In SLM, the metal powder is fully melted during the production process.
This method uses inert gases like nitrogen and argon. SLM is practical for pure metals like aluminium and it can create robust metal parts. This printing method does require supports to strengthen small angles and hangovers. Once the production is finished, the supports are then separated from the printed object.
Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) is an excellent and robust metal additive manufacturing method and it has a similar working like SLM. In this 3D printing method, the printing machine sinters the powdered filament as per the 3d CAD file. But, the main difference is that DMLS does not melt the powder completely. Due to this difference, the filament doesn't need to reach the highest temperature and the cooling time is much shorter.
The biggest benefit of DMLS is that it's more straightforward to produce several segments into a single object. These mechanical parts are extensively used in the aerospace and automotive industries.
In the DED (Directed Energy Deposition) printing method, the filament block is drawn and fused at the same time through the printing nozzle. DED additive manufacturing technology is similar to the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process and the core working principle remains the same. In this process, the metal powder is first melted and then solidified using a laser.
This 3d printing technology gives higher accuracy and the substrate is positioned at 3−axis systems which is the permanent position. On the other side, it can be placed at 5+ axis systems, which is the rotating platform. Objects produced with the DED method offer excellent mechanical characteristics.
Binder Jetting is a modern manufacturing technique and in this method, a 3D printing head accurately places a fluid binding agent over a thin film of powder particles. Binder Jetting is a metal 3D printing process that is applied to build excellent quality and strong bespoke components and tooling parts.
The Binder Jetting additive manufacturing method takes instructions from the CAD model and builds the predefined design. Once the printing job is finished, the build box is removed from the printer and then kept in an oven for curing.
Casting or lost-wax casting is a replacement for additive and subtractive production and this process creates multiple models from the main master model. This metal casting method uses the master model as a source and then creates a greater quality copy of the same and the items are 3D printed in wax.
Once the original pattern is ready, the mould made up in binding is spilled over it. When the binding mould is ready, the metal which is in the molten state is infused into the mould. This will substitute the wax which is removed via a tree-shaped arrangement to produce the object.
A 3D model is a computer file storing all the geometrical description of the item that is ready for printing using a 3d printer. This 3d model is designed using 3D CAD/CAM software or utilising 3d scanning technology. The 3d model design file is first uploaded and then the 3d printing method starts.
To upload a 3d file for printing, first, go to the G-Code Files section and you will get the option for uploading. Click on the Upload G-Code File(s) button and insert the file. Once the 3d design is uploaded, it's all set for 3d printing.
The STL file or Standard Tessellation Language files holds all the information about 3d CAD models that are ready for printing. This STL file format has the data of the item's surface geometry and it does not hold anything related to the final colour, or texture details. CAD software creates these 3d STL files and it is the most used file format of additive manufacturing. When this STL file is used with a 3D slicer, then it enables the computer to establish a connection with the hardware
Multi-jet modelling is a powerful rapid prototyping method that is utilised to produce plastic-based models in a layer-by-layer fashion directly from a 3d CAD file. This technology uses a print head with the multi-nozzles arrangement in a linear pattern. In MJM 3d printing, the wax thermoplastics are sprayed on as tiny droplets by a heated printing head.
For overhangs in this method, a custom support arrangement of lower-melting wax is produced which is removed once the work is completed. This printing method is ideal for printing higher detailed 3d models. The final objects are easier to handle during the post-production stage.
Polylactic Acid (PLA) filament is a widely used additive manufacturing material that is produced from natural resources. The PLA filament is made up of renewable ingredients like corn starch, sugarcane, and tapioca roots. When this process is compared with ABS then the PLA is harder and more effective than ABS but the heat stability is lower. PLA additive manufacturing fibres are bio-based and they are recycle-friendly as compared to other available plastic-based 3d materials.
The injection moulding manufacturing method is heavily used for the creation of plastic items. The manufacturing industry is producing several varieties of items that are manufactured using plastic injection moulding. These objects made up from this technique are of different sizes, design geometries and complexities. This method uses an injection moulding machine and it takes raw plastic filament to manufacture items using a mould. In plastic moulding, the fibre is first melted in the machine and then infused at speed into the mould.
This process is used for the production of thin-walled parts that are commonly found in households. Along with this, the injection moulding process is also employed in the automotive industry.
The key utility of the injection moulding manufacturing technique is easier scalability without making the existing production process complicated. The per-unit price of injection-moulded production is relatively more economical than other conventional production methods. This manufacturing process is ideal for the mass production of the same objects. It is a very repeatable process which makes it an ideal method for producing objects with practically identical characteristics.
As compared to other production processes, material wastage is lower and companies can use the material block to the fullest. High volume manufacturing in injection moulding is more cost-optimized as compared to other techniques.
The injection moulding method involves heating and then shooting plastic filament under high pressure. It is performed into a closed-shape metal mould. In this process, the molten plastic hardens in the mould setup. Once the process is performed, the item is then removed from the manufacturing mould. The plastic filament granules from the tank are supplied into the heated barrel. The melting is either done by heat, resistance or robust shear force. The Injection Molding process is a perfect pick for producing highly intricate objects that hold detailed geometrics.
There are three types of Plastic Injection Molding mechanisms available that are extensively used in various industries.
Hydraulic Injection Molding Machine
The hydraulic injection moulding setup comes with a great clamping force which makes them a good option for creating high-detailed items. The parts of hydraulic equipment have a higher endurance to wear and tear.
Electric Injection Molding Machines
The electric injection moulding machine is a very energy-efficient machine and it offers less down-time. The manufacturing is quicker with these electric machines.
Hybrid Injection Molding Machines
This Plastic Injection Molding PLC Machine is a mixture of the above machines and it delivers higher flexibility and filament strength.
CNC machining is a robust production method and in this process, a computer program commands the machinery and therefore no manual supervision is needed. The CNC machining method is used for regulating a wide range of complicated machines with higher efficiency and faster turnaround. Grinders, lathe, milling tools are some of the generally used equipment of this technology.
As the CNC gets commands from a computer program, the entire production process becomes error-free. CNC excludes the need for manual administration and supervision of production processes.
Companies are using CNC machining for many applications and there are several uses of this process including:
• Signage board production
• Cabinets and furniture manufacturing
• Rapid prototyping
• Brass and aluminium machining
• Instruments manufacturing and more
There are several CNC advantages over the traditional manufacturing processes like:
• This process delivers seamless scalability in the mass production
• CNC machining offers greater precision during manufacturing
• Less manual labour involved
• Faster turnaround time
• Identical products manufacturing
Vacuum casting is a copy manufacturing process for elastomers polymers and this process leverages a vacuum to extract the molten material into the casting mould. This manufacturing method is an excellent fit when there is an air entrapment issue with the casting mould. Vacuum casting or reproduction technology is an ideal technique for manufacturing objects with complex details. This process is also known as thermoforming because it also includes a rapid prototyping method in which the plastic or other fibre is preheated.
This manufacturing process starts with the creation of a master pattern utilising Stereolithography technology. After this, the master model is arranged with a casting gate and then stretched over the parting line of the cast frame mould.
In this formative manufacturing method, the silicone rubber is mixed and flowed into a mould casting structure which is under vacuum. This silicone rubber will move around the master model and will produce a silicone mould. After this, the mould is stored under the heating assembly and once the mould is set, it is removed. The master model is finally separated before putting the casting funnel & the mould is then sealed.
The vacuum casting device employs a strong vacuum to suck the heated filament into the mould. During this, a force is required to pass the surface tension of the molten filament. If the force is not sufficient, the molten filament will form into a blob.
Using SLA or laser sintering, the master model is prepared which brings an excellent surface finish. Then, the silicone mould is manufactured by casting the silicone material around the master pattern copy. This process is done under vacuum to avoid any kind of air bubble from appearing. Once the curing is done, the silicone mould is cut as per the predefined design.
There are numerous high-efficiency applications of vacuum casting like:
• Production of high-quality plastic prototypes and parts.
• It is massively used in the manufacturing of prosthetics and medical devices.
• In custom automotive parts production.
• Designers can use VC for functional testing.
• Creating decorative items.
The vacuum casting manufacturing method works with numerous materials that offer various physical properties and durability levels. Below are some of the most common vacuum casting materials:
• Polypropylene (PP)
• Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)
• Polycarbonate (PC)
• Glass-filled polymers
• Wax
• Rubber, and more
There are several utility benefits of leveraging vacuum casting in the manufacturing industry. The silicone moulding produces the highest quality parts as compared to other conventional production methods. Vacuum casting is a comprehensive manufacturing method for conducting functional testing. VC allows a wide range of finishing choices and even in limited batches, it delivers superior quality. VC is ideal for both small-batch and bulk production.
There are several vacuum casting practices in many industries. Some of the modern uses of this production technology are:
Faster and accurate functional testing
Small-scale production of housings items
Manufacturing of high-quality prototypes and concept models
Product design validation
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