The advancement in the manufacturing process known as 3D printing or additive manufacturing has revolutionized the traditional process of manufacturing. This evolving technology is making its impact in a range of industries from aerospace through to medical device applications due to the opportunity for quick design changes, the possibility of short lot sizes and end use parts with high levels of customisation. With a growing advancement of 3D Printing technology and its further inclusions in the manufacturing operations of industries, its disruptive impact is most likely to alter the supply chain and even the ways product designs are developed, products are prototyped and finally produced.
Rapid Prototyping
Another benefit of 3D printing is that it reduces time and efforts required to create prototypes Another key benefit of 3D printing is that it quickens and eases the process of creating prototypes. Nowadays instead of having to use third-party machine shops and waiting weeks to receive the prototype parts, one can print fully functional in-house prototypes using the digital files from the design phase. This allows design validation and testing at the initial design phase in the development cycle compared to building and testing through costly and time-consuming prototype models.
Conventional methods of prototyping such as CNC machining or injection molding could take weeks or even months to produce prototypes but with industrial strength 3D printers, prototypes can be produced in hours or days at most. This short time span enables engineers to assess the efficiency of specific designs and make alterations several times within the shortest time possible depending on test results. Overall, it can be seen that 3D printing helps in achieving shorter time to market and lower costs during the highly strategic period of new product development.
Cost Reduction
Moreover, testing as well as employing 3D printing in mass production is relatively cheaper as compared to traditional production for smaller orders. Capital costs for injection molding equipment or CNC for custom part application could easily reach thousands. As such, when the number of products to be produced is small or moderate, it becomes very costly to produce through traditional methods.
In contrast, the majority of costs that are associated with 3D printing are majorly the cost of the materials used in the printing process rather than the costs of setting up and the tools that will be used. Therefore, it can be cheaper to dedicate the resources necessary for 3D printing end-use parts where a few thousand of the same part may be needed, which means that the small-batch manufacturing is more achievable now. From machinery parts to dental aligners, the technology of 3D printers pay less for more cost of customization for smaller runs.
What we are now witnessing in 3D printers is the decrease in their price, increase in speed and quality – at some point 3D printing will become as cheap as traditional mass production technologies, just without the need to produce millions of units to cover the cost of tools and jigs. This disruption could lead to a reduction in cost when it comes to the production of goods at scale and on demand.
Customization Capabilities
One of the most innovative features of 3D printing technology is that it makes it possible, and relatively easy to create a large number of highly customized or personalized end-products that could not have been produced this way in the past. Where once costly and time-consuming for manufacturing, customization and complex geometries are now easily achievable: in the simplest terms, adjustable prosthetic limbs shaped to perfectly fit a patient or lattice structures designed for a specific function such as airflow or flexibility.
While the mass production model has been widely adopted internationally for efficiency and affordable cost in manufacturing goods, 3D printing permits batch production with differentiation – a deviation from the traditional single mold production of products. Newappz therefore presents the fact that as more applications of 3D printing are developed, consumers and business people will be in a position to make affordable products to fit their needs for example phone cases or shoes to medical implants and industrial parts.
The Future of Manufacturing
The development of 3D printing continues to grow exponentially, and the printers are becoming faster, larger and more capable of handling a wide variety of materials, which indicates that the technology holds the potential of revolutionizing global supply chains and manufacturing industries. New opportunities in product design and utilization in different sectors will be created by affordable customization, improved and lightweight construction, heightened ergonomics and medical implants, optimized industrial parts and components and cost efficiency.
That means that while we aren’t seeing the complete elimination of modern factories any time soon, 3D manufacturing is poised to recast a raft of assumptions that underpinned mass production in the twentieth century. Analyses of the future factories suggest that these are likely to consist of portions committed to 3D printing facilities or sections where additive manufacturing and traditional manufacturing processes are integrated. Having heard a lot about it for the last few decades, the technology of 3D printing is now on the verge of revolutionizing the next stage of manufacturing across the globe. Perhaps, the more pertinent question is how quickly and efficiently this powerful and multi-faceted new toolkit overwhelms and re-works the traditional manufacturing paradigm as it currently exists.
