While 3D Printing has been around for many decades, patents had not allowed the booming technology to grow to its full potential, now with these patents becoming old and coming to an end, will allow one of the hottest technologies on the market to reach levels that many did not think were possible. So now with the major patents that have limited the 3D printer have fully expired or about to expire will give this industry the push they have needed. With the major one being that now once a product is made from a 3D printer it can now be sold as “finished” and ready for the consumer. While in the past this was not possible. This type of technology will help many companies expand and has many pros to it. It is also known that having a small 3D printer at home will be fun and exciting to have, but where it will change the market and revolutionize it is in big corporations and their factories. In order to produce in bulk, and become more time efficient and cost effective. Some of the bigger companies are already using, and if not already using, planning on using the technology to create products. Some examples include: General Electric printing parts for their jets, Boeing is also making parts for many of their plans and even, Hersey's is printing edible treats in different shapes and, in a darker fashion, Defense Distributed uses home 3D printers to create parts for guns. The list does not just stop there because; Coca Cola, Nokia, and EBay are currently using the technology. Along with NASA who is going to introduce 3D printing in 2014, to help astronauts in producing parts and tools in zero gravity. "If you want to be adaptable, you have to be able to design and manufacture on the fly, and that's where 3D printing in space comes in... ... middle of paper ... ...harmful, here is an example: Hewlett Packer has decided to now implement this technology this year to make simple things like ink or the materials needed to print, so that it could drive the price down for the consumers. Hewlett Packer is not only seeing this technology as an opportunity to create products but to also improve supply chain. They are also realizing that healthcare is benefiting the most from recent interest in 3D printing. By creating new light, inexpensive prosthetics and artificial bone. These are just a few ways HP would like to use 3D technology so they can make healthcare more affordable and better for the average consumer, so that it can truly impact and make a change in the market. Therefore with all this being said, there will always be pros and cons to everything, but maybe with 3D technology it turns out to be more beneficial for everyone.
The field of bioprinting, using 3D printing technology for producing live cells with extreme accuracy, could be the answer to many of the problems we as humans face in the medical field. It could be the end to organ waiting lists and an alternative for organ transplants. In 3D printing technology lies the potential to replace the testing of new drugs on animals. However, the idea of applying 3 dimensional printing to the health industry is still quite new and yet to have a major impact. Manufacturing working 3D organs remains an enormous challenge, but in theory could solve major issues present today.
The second issue is new product designs. Applied Materials can control the cost altogether by importing lower cost materials from overseas, shifting its R&D departments to lower cost countries, and hiring offices overseas in India, China, or Japan. As Porter states in his paper, a company can only gain advantage over other companies by keeping its costs low and keeping its products unique. To keep the products unique, Applied Materials can also increase their R&D investments to develop more innovative new products. This will lead to continued success of the company. In 2015, the company introduced its 2018 financial model that forecasted global wafer equipment spending in the $33.5 billion range. One of the main challenges Applied Materials faces is creating innovative products that are compatible with the latest technology; this is why it is important for Applied Materials to increase the cost of R&D. Because Applied Materials is in an industry that is always changing, it is necessary to look beyond existing possibilities and continue exploring better possibilities for their firm. The amount Applied Materials will save from importing from overseas or from cheaper labor overseas can be used to invest towards the R&D for everlasting unique
9. Gebhardt A, Fateri M (2013). 3D printing and its applications. RTejournal - Forum für
To realize why this method is a more suitable alternative, one must first know what additive and subtractive manufacturing is. Created by 3D Systems company founder Chuck Hull, additive manufacturing appeared about thirty years ago (Saginor). In simple terms, additive manufacturing generates products by adding layer upon layer of material from 3-Dimensional blueprints. Nozzles attached to these printers fill models with layers of heated material until the final product is formed. It not only creates products from designs, but also specializes in making designs too, like speedy prototypes for pioneering businesses. The subtractive process, much older than thirty years, uses conventional machinery to cut away excess matter to form a product; this process can best be compared to sculpting. When you envision the old-school factories with machines accompanying long assembly lines, you...
That is why DARPA along with 70 million dollars to John Hopkin's Applied Physics Laboratory are spearheading the work. The projects goals are lofty: APL hopes to design an arm ...
Blender 3D, usually known as just Blender, is described by the Blender homepage, Blender.org, as a “free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems.” What this basically means is that Blender is a free program that allows someone to create things in a virtual three-dimensional space on almost any computer. This means that someone using Blender can create anything they want, a car, a sword, a house, or even a toothpick, that only exists on the computer it is created on, and any that it is copied to, absolutely free. Even though Blender is a free program, it is very powerful and has been said to be on par with similar proprietary programs. This means that Blender 3D is a great replacement for proprietary 3D software.
MakerBot did well because they introduced a low cost 3D printer in the market which could be assembled and would cost less than $1000. The other printers available in the market were large machines which were costing several hundred thousand dollars. Thus, MakerBot was able to cater to the customers who formed low end of the market and were very price sensitive. This helped MakerBot to sell a large number of printers and increased its customer base.
Firstly, the ability to print 3d objects for construction straight from a computer gives the designer great design flexibility that would have been otherwise near impossible. For example, structurally strong curvilinear shapes can be now made in contrast to the rectilinear shapes that have been mainly built in the past. Furthermore, recycled plastic materials can be used in addition to other typical raw materials such as concrete and sand. New materials have also been invented for 3d printing such as a composite material that is thicker than concrete. The amount of waste created from construction is reduced immensely(by 50-60%). As a result, the cost of materials is much less as there are no scrap material and recycled materials can be used instead sometimes. The amount of workers required to design and erect the building is also reduced as the printed parts only need assembling on site. As a result, labour costs, construction costs and production times are reduced as the printer does much of the work and the parts are quick and easy to assemble with little waste. For instance, in China, 10 houses were printed in just 24 hours. Furthermore, the building, if designed correctly with the correct materials, will have no errors as it was created with great accuracy. It's clear from 3d printing, the construction process will be done with ease and the finished product will not
One news headline I remember seeing a while ago was “3D printing may put global supply chains out of business”. So what does this mean for scarcity? One of the core tenants of our economy and money industries. 3D printing virtually gives sellers and consumers unlimited resources and materials. For an example, a person can put a file he/she made online for sale. If they don’t sell a single
Other benefits of FEM can be mentioned as an understanding about critical design parameter, virtual prototyping, faster and less expensive manufacturing process. Clearly FEM allows designs to be constructed, refined and optimized before the design is manufactured (Bhushan, 2010).
To understand the conflicting issues brought about by this new technology, one must know the basic functions and concepts of 3D printing. The key idea of 3D printing or additive manufacturing (AM) is "using computer-aided design (CAD) software to design a three-dimensional image of what you want to produce" (Ranaldi). Once you have the CAD software, 3D printer purchased from manufactures, and a design file, all that's left is to purchase the material needed for your design. Although the process described seems very costly, some advantages from 3D printing such as greatly reduced production time, low waste production and easy accessibility makes up for much of the initial start up costs. In short, " [Additive manufacturing] simplifies the manufacturing process by building pre-assembled systems: a clock with all its gears in place" (Haxel, 5)...
that make thousands of types of plastics. Ink pens, car parts and plastic bags are all made
this new found way to build vehicles by currently being the only car manufacturer to have
I have always liked playing with Legos and will always like Legos, it is a way that I can build all the inventions and modifications I think up in my head and make them a working prototype. When I went to Maker Faire KC in 2011 and saw all the amazing inventions, I was in heaven, but the device l was most interested in and decided I must have was a 3D printer. 3D printing is like Legos, you can build anything you think of in plastic, but unlike Legos, everything is strong and just the shape you want it to be. When I first saw 3D printers at Maker Faire they were still using hot glue guns, (a primitive method in 3D printing), so everything came out looking like it was a large blob made of cobwebs...
For instance, Space uses an electron beam additive manufacturing technology, which is a metal 3D printing solution. Additive manufacturing technology has “reduced cost by 55%, material waste by 75% and production time by 80%...over traditional forging methods (2017).” In addition, the “Digital Tapestry” technology not only streamlines the manufacturing process, it also produces stronger structures (Nathan, 2015). Similarly, the Space division uses robots to scour airships for pinholes, which significantly reduces both production and repair timeframes (Warwick, 2016). With Digital Tapestry technology and robots, the organization achieved its objective to make products more cost-effective by improving product quality, reducing waste, and increasing manufacturing