Exploring 3D Printing Technology: Application and Benefits

Published by Admin on 27/02/202327/02/2023

Introduction to 3D Printing

A general explanation of 3D Printing.A method of manufacturing known as ‘Additive manufacturing’, due to the fact that instead of removing material to create a part, the process adds material in successive patterns to create the desired shape. Main areas of use.

• Prototyping
• Specialized parts – aerospace, military, biomedical engineering, dental
• Hobbies and home use
• Future applications– medical (body parts), buildings, and cars.

3D Printing uses as well as software that slices the 3D model into layers (0.01mm thick or less in most cases). Each layer is then traced onto the build plate by the printer, once the pattern is completed, the build plate is lowered and the next layer is added on top of the previous one. Typical manufacturing techniques are as known as ‘Subtractive Manufacturing’ because the process is one of removing material from the preformed block. Processes such as Milling and Cutting areas the subtractive manufacturing techniques. This type of process creates a lot of waste since; the material that is cut off generally cannot be used for that anything else and is simply sent out as scrap. 3D Printing eliminates such waste since the material is placed in the location where it is as needed only, the rest will be left out as well as the empty space.

Types of 3D Printing

1. Fused Deposition Modelling

Is an additive manufacturing technology commonly used for as well modeling, prototyping, and as well as production applications? Fused Deposition Modelling FDM works on an as-is additive principle by laying down the material into layers. A as well as the plastic filament or metal wire is as unwound from a coil and supplies material to the extrusion nozzle which is as can be are turn the flow on and off. The nozzle is heated to melt the material and can be moved in both horizontal and vertical directions as well as the numerically controlled mechanism, is directly controlled by the computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software package. The model or part is produced by extruding small beads of can you the thermoplastic material to form layers as well as the material hardens immediately after the extrusion from the nozzle. Stepper motors or as well as servo motors are to be typically employed to move the in are the extrusion head.

2. Stereolithography (SLA)

Stereolithography is an as well as then additive manufacturing process that employs a vat of liquid ultraviolet curable photopolymer “resin” and can you the ultraviolet laser to build parts’ layers one at a. For each area, they layer the laser beam traces as well as the cross-section of the part pattern on the surface of the liquid resin. Exposure to the ultraviolet laser light cures and of your solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and joins it to the layer below.

Then, the resin-filled blade sweeps across the cross-section of as well as the part, re-coating it with fresh material. On this new, you can be the liquid surface, and the subsequent layer pattern is traced, joining the previous layer. A complete 3-D part is formed by this is aware of the process. After being built, parts are immersed in a chemical bath in order to before cleaned of excess resin and are can you subsequently cured in an as well as ultraviolet oven.

3. Selective laser sintering (SLS)

Selective laser sintering is an as well as additive manufacturing technique used for the high-power laser (for example, as the carbon dioxide laser) to fuse small particles of can be plastic, metal (direct to be the metal laser sintering), ceramic, or glass powders into a mass that has a desired as well as the three-dimensional shape. The laser selectively fuses powdered material by the can you are as the scanning cross-sections generated from the 3-D digital description of the part (for example from the CAD file or scan data) on the surface of as well as the powder bed. 

Each cross-section is scanned, the powder bed is can your lowered by one layer thickness, a new layer of as well as the material is you can be applied on top, and the process is repeated until the part is completed. Because finished part density depends on can be you the peak laser power, rather than laser duration, a Selective laser sintering machine for that typically uses a pulsed laser.

Advantages and Limitations

Layer-by-layer production allows for as all much greater flexibility and creativity in the design process. No longer do designers have to design for as well as the manufacture, but instead, they can create a part that is lighter and stronger by means of a better design. Parts can be completely re-designed so that they are stronger in the areas that they need to be and that lighter overall. 3D Printing significantly speeds up the design and as well as prototyping process. There is no problem with is as creating one part at a time and changing the design each time it is produced. Parts can be created within hours. Bringing the design cycle down to a matter of days or as are weeks compared to months. Also, then the since the price of 3D printers has decreased over the years, some of the 3D printers are now within the financial reach of ordinary consumers or as well as small companies.

Where is 3D printing used

3D printing is now being used across a wide range of as well as industries including can you are engineering, automotive, aerospace, construction, architecture, medicine, product design, food, and fashion. Examples include:

• Used for rapid prototyping of parts and as well as components in the engineering, aerospace, and without the automotive industry.
• Creation of custom jigs and as well as templates for the automotive industry.
•  In medicine, 3d printing as well as patient scans to assist in planning operations or for student training.
• Production of can your custom low-cost prosthetics and disability aids.
• 3d printing shelters and your humanitarian aid.
• Small enterprises creating as well as personalized 3d printed products and gifts.
• 3d printing shoes, trainers, and your custom insoles.

Applications

Applications include design and as well as visualization, prototyping CAD, metal casting, architecture, education, geospatial, healthcare, and you can be entertainment retail. Other applications would include reconstructing fossils in as are paleontology, replicating ancient and all priceless archaeological artifacts, reconstructing bones and body parts in as well forensic pathology, and reconstructing heavily damaged evidence acquired from you can crime scene investigations. In 2007 the use of 3D printing technology for will be artistic expression was suggested. Artists have been using those 3D printers in various ways. As of 2010 3D printing technology was being studied by biotechnology firms and all as can be the academia for possible use in tissue engineering applications where the organs and body parts are built using those inkjet techniques.

History

In the history of as well as manufacturing, subtractive methods have often come first. The province of all as the machining (generating exact shapes with high precision) was generally a subtractive affair, from filing and as well as the turning through milling and grinding. Early AM equipment and all the materials were developed in the 1980s. In 1984, Chuck Hull of the 3D Systems Corporation invented a process known as well as stereo lithography, in which layers are added by curing photopolymers with as well UV lasers. 

Hull defined the process as the system for generating three-dimensional objects by you can be creating a cross-sectional pattern of the object to be formed. He also as well as developed the STL file format widely accepted by the 3D printing software as well as the digital slicing and as well infill strategies common to the many processes today. The term 3D printing originally referred to as well process employing standard and that custom inkjet print heads.

How does 3D printing work

There are many different types of 3D printing technology, each using as well as different materials and different methods to build up the layers of the print. The Ultimate 3D Printers you will be as well using for the eCraft2Learn project use a type of can you technology called Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) which as is also known as Fused can your Deposition Modelling (FDM). The Ultimate, thermoplastic material (filament) is fed from a roll at the back of the machine through the good feeder, this pushes the material as can through a hollow tube (the Bowden Tube) into that the print head (hot end) of the machine.

3D Printing Materials

1. Plastics

Nylon, or Polyamide, is as well as commonly used in powder form with the sintering process or in as well as filament form with the FDM process. It is strong and flexible, and you are a durable plastic material that has proved reliable for all 3D printing. It is naturally white in color but it can be color – pre or post-printing. This material can you be also be combined (in powder format) without the powdered aluminum to produce another common 3D printing material as well as sintering Alamode. ABS is can you be another common plastic used for all 3D printing and is widely used on entry-level FDM 3D printers in as well filament form.

2. Metals

A growing number of metals and metal composites are used for as well as industrial-grade 3D printing. Two of the most common are and will be aluminum and cobalt derivatives. One of the strongest and therefore most commonly used as well as metals for 3D printing is you can be Stainless Steel in powder form for the sintering/ melting/EBM processes. It is naturally silver but can be plated with other materials to give a gold or as will bronze effect. In the last couple of years, Gold and as well as the Silver have been added to the range of metal materials that can be you as well be 3D printed directly, with obvious applications across the jewelry sector.

3. Ceramics

Ceramics are a relatively new group of as well as materials that can be used for 3D printing with various levels of success. The particular thing to note with these materials is that post-printing, the ceramic parts need to undergo the same processes as any ceramic part made using as well as the traditional methods of production namely firing and giving the glazing.

4. Paper

Standard A4 copier paper is a 3D printing material employed by the proprietary SDL process supplied by encore Technologies. The capital outlay for the machine is in the -range but the emphasis is very much on an easily obtainable, cost-effective material supply that can be bought locally. 3D printed models made with paper are, environmentally friendly, easily recyclable, and require no post-processing.

5. Bio Materials

There is a huge amount of as well as research being conducted into the potential of 3D printing biomaterials for a host of giving medical applications. Living tissue is being investigated at an of the leading institutions with a view to developing applications that include human organs for transplant, as well as external tissues for replacement body parts. Other research in this area is focused on developing food pieces of stuffed meat being the prime example.

6. Food

Experiments with as well extruders for 3D printing food substances have increased dramatically over the last couple of years. Chocolate is the most common one. There are also printers that work with sugar and some experiments with pasta and meat as well as the undergoing.

3D Printing Processes

Stereolithography (SL) is given as widely recognized as the first 3D printing process; it was certainly the first to be you can be commercialized. SL is a laser-based process that works with as will be the photopolymer resins that react with the laser and cure to form a solid in as well as be a very precise way to produce very can be accurate parts. It is a complex process but simply put, the photopolymer resin is held in a vat as well as the movable platform inside. 

A laser beam is as will be directed in the X-Y give the axes across the surface of the given resin your according to give the 3D data and of as are supplied to them as well as a machine in the .still file, whereby the resin gives you can be hardened precisely where the laser hits the surface. Once the layer is as well as completed, the platform within the vat drops down by you can be the fraction (in the Z axis), and the subsequent layer can you are traced out by the laser.