The Future Of 3D Printing

Part 1: Introduction

Nowadays, 3D has become an over buzzed word: be it with displays, movies, mobiles or the newer addition: Printers. 3D printers are much similar to traditional printers but instead of printing a image they build an object. The magnitude of the impact can begin from printing fine delicate jewellery to state of art jet engines or even houses. 3D printing though an old technique but has evolved a lot in recent few years from being a technology trigger to reaching a sustaining plateau on the Gartner’s Hype curve.

Figure 1: In 2010, 3D printing was starting to pick up on emerging technology trends

Figure 2: Now 3D printing has evolved to reach stage affecting consumers directly

3D printing belongs to a class of manufacturing called as additive manufacturing. This differs from traditional manufacturing which is subtractive manufacturing where goods are cut, drilled or moulded to form shapes. In additive manufacturing a 3d printer prints the entire product in laminas of 2d images. So each scan adds an extra layer of product super imposed on the previous one. This helps in creating difficult pattern which are difficult to manufacture using subtractive manufacturing as the pattern gets added layer by layer. 3D printing can create objects from a gambit of materials, including plastic, ceramics, metal, glass, paper, enamel and even living cells. These materials are available in the form of powders, liquids, filaments,or sheets. With some modifications, a single object can be printed in multiple materials and colours, and a single print job can even produce interconnected moving parts (such as hinges, mesh or chain links).

History of 3D printing:

Hideo Kodama of Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute in 19...

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...llion. In 2014, expenditure will increase by 62 percent, reaching $669 million, with enterprise segment of $536 million and consumer spending of $133 million. The future prediction of the overall additive manufacturing will rise to around 11-12 B $ from currently 3B dollar represending 300% growth in period of 6 years.

Figure 6: Predicted Growth of 3D Pirnting indsutry

3d Printing Working:

3D printers primarily make use of a manufacturing concept called as Additive manufacturing which could be explained in a simpler way as layers of slices of products are added to form the entire product. This is in contrast to regular "subtractive" manufacturing, where an object is constructed by cutting of raw material into a desired shape. So the process begins with designing an idea, uploading it on the CAD software, choosing the right material and then printing the output.