Interpretation of the limitations of 3D printing technology

Since 2012, 3D printing technology has witnessed a new round of research and development, and its heat is far greater than the first heat. In this heat, the research and application of 3D printing technology are in full swing, and the promotion of 3D printing technology is almost complete. Advanced digital control technology invited Prof. Liu Bin from School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, to interpret 3D printing technology for everyone's authority, so that the Chinese people can fully understand the essence and existing problems of 3D printing technology, so as to be objective, fair, calm, and fully understand. 3D printing technology.

(1) The existence of high-cost, long-duration soft-ribbed 3D printing is still a relatively expensive technology. Due to the difficulties in the research and development of materials used for additive manufacturing, and the small amount of use, the cost of 3D printing is high, and the manufacturing efficiency is not high.

At present, 3D printing technology is mainly used in the research and development of new products in China, and the manufacturing cost is high, the manufacturing efficiency is low, and the manufacturing accuracy is still not satisfactory. 3D printing cannot replace traditional manufacturing at present. In the future development of the manufacturing industry, the "material reduction manufacturing method is still the mainstream."

(2) There is no advantage in scale production. Since 3D printing technology has the advantages of distributed production, on the contrary, it has no advantage in scale production. At present, 3D printing technology does not yet have the conditions to replace traditional manufacturing industries. In high-volume, large-scale manufacturing, etc., efficient, low-cost traditional methods of reducing materials are superior.

It now appears that it is unlikely that 3D printing will be used as a production method to replace large-scale production. Not to mention that 3D printing technology does not yet have the capability to directly produce complex hybrid materials such as automobiles. Even if the technology makes great progress in the future, it will only take a few months to print a car completely and it will cost far more. The cost of each vehicle is evenly distributed to the mass production of automobiles.

Therefore, for the production of products with a large number of rigid demands, large-scale production with economies of scale is still more economical than 3D printing with emphasis on “personalization and customization”.

(3) Restrictions on printing materials The limitations and bottlenecks of 3D printing technology are mainly reflected in the materials. At present, the printing materials are mainly plastics, resins, plasters, ceramics, sand, and metals. The materials that can be used for 3D printing are very limited.

Although many homogenous and heterogeneous materials have been developed for 3D printing, the need to develop new materials still exists and some new materials are being developed. This need consists of two levels. First, it requires not only an in-depth study of the applied material-process-structure-characteristic relationship, in order to clarify its advantages and limitations; second, it needs to develop new testing processes and methods to expand the available The range of materials.

(4) Accuracy and quality issues Due to the inherently inconsistent molding principles and development of 3D printing technology, the precision (including dimensional accuracy, shape accuracy, and surface roughness) and physical properties (such as strength, stiffness, and fatigue resistance) of print-printed parts have been improved. Most of the chemical properties, etc., cannot meet the practical application requirements of the project. They cannot be used as functional parts and can only be used as prototype parts, and their applications will be greatly reduced.

Moreover, due to the additive manufacturing process of “layered manufacturing, layer stacking” for 3D printing, the combination between layers is no longer comparable to that of the conventional molded parts, and the microscopic material of the parts The organization and structure determine the performance of the parts.

Why does 3D printing technology only begin to commercialize equipment by the end of the 1980s?

The core idea of ​​3D printing technology originated in the United States. As early as 1892, JE Lanther suggested in his patent that a three-dimensional topographic map was constructed using a stratified manufacturing method. In 1902, the patent of CarloBaese proposed the principle of making plastic parts from photopolymers. In 1904, Perera proposed a method of cutting contours on cardboard and then bonding the cardboard into a three-dimensional topographic map (as shown in the figure). After the 1950s, hundreds of patents related to 3D printing emerged.

The use of 3D printing to create 3D topographic maps The emergence of modern 3D printing technology originated in the mid to late 1980s. Since then, 3D printing technology has undergone fundamental development and more patents have emerged. For example, in 1986, Hull invented SLA (Stereo Lithography Appearance), Feygin invented layered objects in 1988, and Deckard invented SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) in 1989. Crump invented in 1992. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Sachs invented 3D printing technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993.

With the continuous invention of all kinds of patented 3D printing technology, its corresponding production equipment has also been developed. Such as: In 1988, 3DSystems Corporation of the United States produced the world’s first modern 3D printing device—SLA-250 (stereo-curing molding machine)—according to Hull’s patent, and created a new era for the development of 3D printing technology. In the years since then, 3D printing technology has flourished and more than ten new processes and corresponding 3D printing devices have emerged.

Why, then, did 3D printing technology only begin to commercialize equipment by the end of the 1980s? The author of this article thinks there are two main reasons:

(1) Related to 3D CAD software. Because the 3D printing technology uses the principle of layered manufacturing, it is very important that the source of the cross-section data of each layer of the parts being manufactured. Only the maturity of the 3D CAD software can easily, conveniently, quickly and randomly obtain the data of any section of the parts being manufactured. Therefore, only in the late 1980s, mature 3D CAD software provided data protection for 3D printing technology.

(2) related to related materials. Because the 3D printing technology adopts the manufacturing principle of “layered manufacturing, layer stacking”, the performance of 3D printing materials must satisfy the “combination effect of materials for each layer and material combination between layers”. The requirements are consistent with their print forming process.

Why is material the core of 3D printing technology?

3D printing technology is an interdisciplinary cross-cutting technology. Printed materials are the core of the technology. The appearance of a material directly determines the three-dimensional printing process, equipment structure, and performance of molded parts. From the appearance of the stereolithography (SLA) technology in 1988 to today's three-dimensional printing, due to the appearance of a new material, such as: liquid photosensitive resin determines the SLA process and equipment, thin layer material Determined the LOM process and equipment, filament material determines the FDM process and equipment. Due to the differences in physical form and chemical properties of materials, different forming methods for 3D printing materials and 3D printing are formed today.

3D printing technology In these decades of development, new materials are an important driving force for 3D printing technology. Companies and universities worldwide that are engaged in 3D printing technology are actively developing new materials that are more versatile and easier to print.

Why can't 3D printing be used for mass production?

3D printing technology does not have a strong substitute for traditional manufacturing technologies. Although there are advantages in small batch production and mold production of some products, in terms of mass production, the speed and cost of 3D printing are better than traditional manufacturing methods.

In addition, the single and expensive cost of the 3D printed material variety limits it to products that are not price-sensitive and have limited market applications.

Of course, it is undeniable that the charm of 3D printing technology: does not require complicated processes, does not require a huge machine, does not require a lot of manpower, can generate physical parts directly from the computer's three-dimensional graphics data, so that production can be extended to a wider population . Therefore, we can optimistically predict that "as long as there are suitable materials, 3D printers will not replace a certain manufacturing industry in the future, but will replace all manufacturing industries."

However, compared to traditional manufacturing processes, 3D printing efficiency is still very low and the cost is still high. And, the printing efficiency and print quality also have a negative correlation. If very high printing accuracy is required, the printing speed will be slow and the efficiency will be low. Based on this printing feature, 3D printing can only be used for the production of single-piece, personalized products and cannot be used for the production of large-volume products. If it is the large-scale production of industrial enterprises, it must be the most cost-effective mold production.

For 3D printing, the more controversial is whether it will cause changes in the production model? For example, the design of a complex product becomes a three-dimensional data model of a computer. The process is completed by a printer. The general public does not need to learn the traditional complex manufacturing processes, but only needs to operate a computer to produce physical products. Thus, the production of large factories is streamlined. The model may return to the original home workshop. In this regard, some experts pointed out that the products that can be produced by 3D printing are still limited in practice and cannot reach the point of mass production. The latter still needs to be carried out through traditional centralized production. However, 3D printing should be a better way for some parts or components that use less. Therefore, the role played by 3D printing is more individualized production (as shown in the figure) than mass production. Do not have the appearance of 3D printing, there is the idea of ​​negating the traditional manufacturing process. For large-scale manufacturing, casting, forging, and molding are all irreplaceable. Competitive costs, but not to mention quality, stability. So at this stage, 3D printing is used in certain specific situations and cannot be used for mass production.

Why does 3D printing not replace traditional manufacturing processes for personalized products made with 3D printing technology?

Usually, the manufacturing industry, especially the metal manufacturing industry, adopts a subtractive process, that is, through the metal cutting process such as car milling, planing, grinding, and drilling, the workpiece is subjected to reduced material manufacturing. The 3D printing uses an additive process, that is, through the sequential accumulation of materials, the final product is processed. Therefore, 3D printing is also referred to as additive manufacturing. The difference between 3D printing and traditional processing technology is reflected in this increase or decrease.

The unique advantages of 3D printing are also reflected in this additive process. For example, almost 100% of raw materials can be used to create products with special structures that cannot be achieved by traditional processes, thus saving the cost of mold opening, and having cost advantages in small-batch production. In the process of new product development, prototypes or samples can be quickly manufactured. , can achieve distributed manufacturing. Indeed, these outstanding features of 3D printing technology are undoubtedly difficult to achieve with traditional manufacturing processes. If a 3D printer has these features, it will undoubtedly bring a strong impact on the traditional manufacturing process, and even disruptive changes.

However, so far, people often avoid 3D printing as a key indicator of economy in scale manufacturing. For example, the cost of 3D printing is one-tenth of the cost of traditional open molds, while eliminating the need for long open molds. However, the high R&D cost of aircraft is based on batch diluting. This number should be far more than ten, and the advantages of traditional processing methods will emerge. For example, the “freewheel” of ocean-going freighters that enjoyed great reputation in World War II made 2,751 ships during the war. With the improvement of craftsmanship and management, the construction time of the “freewheel” shortened from the first 244 days to an average of 42 days. The fast record is 4 days, 15 hours and 30 minutes, which is a classic for large-scale industrial manufacturing.

At the same time, we should also pay attention to the tight coupling of 3D printing equipment and processes, that is, 3D printing devices are difficult to make into general-purpose devices. This is more prominent in the plastic fused deposition molding process, according to different print materials to replace the corresponding print head, or even a printer. This non-universal feature has weakened the distributed manufacturing of 3D printing. After all, not all 3D printing supporters have the financial power to purchase multiple 3D printing devices. If 3D printing cannot replace traditional manufacturing processes in enough manufacturing areas, then we must be careful that 3D printing technology will subvert the entire traditional manufacturing industry.

In fact, since 3D printing cannot completely replace traditional manufacturing processes, from the perspective of industry, traditional manufacturing technologies and 3D printing technologies should be complementary technologies, but in different manufacturing fields or different product manufacturing, both are The proportion of processes in the manufacturing process is different.

Why does 3D printing technology not replace the traditional manufacturing industry?

In the traditional manufacturing industry, opening a model is a very vexing thing. It is time consuming, difficult and costly. The advantage of 3D printing technology is precisely reflected in product design (model design). Any complex personalized product that can be designed can print model parts through 3D printing technology and even directly produce and manufacture products.

Although 3D printing technology can print out many kinds of products we need, 3D printing cannot replace traditional production methods from the comprehensive comparison of cost accounting, material constraints, production efficiency, process level, and product performance. .

The core meaning of 3D printing is reflected in two aspects:

First, personalized, complex, and difficult products that cannot be manufactured and manufactured by the traditional production methods, and can be manufactured directly through 3D printing technology;

Second, although the traditional method can produce, but the input cost is too high, the cycle is too long, through the 3D printing technology can achieve fast, convenient, shorten the cycle, reduce costs.

3D printing can solve technical problems that cannot be solved by traditional technologies and will play an active role in the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industries and structural adjustments (as shown in the figure).

3D printing combines the casting technology to quickly cast engine components. However, the mass production, scale, and lean manufacturing that traditional manufacturing industries are good at are precisely the short legs of 3D printing technology. At the same time, 3D printing technology still faces bottlenecks in raw materials, precision, process stability and many other aspects. Therefore, 3D printing technology will replace the traditional manufacturing industry is not realistic. First, the cost is not worthwhile, not up to the requirements of scale; Second, 3D printing can not make the factory completely say goodbye to lathes, drills, stamping machines, molding machines And other traditional tools. As a major change in traditional production methods, 3D printing technology is a useful supplement to traditional production methods.

It is a serious misconception that the idea that "3D printing technology will completely replace traditional manufacturing industries" is neither scientific nor practical and cannot be achieved. The key reason is that any commodity we need in production and life is functional, and any functional commodity is made from different materials. We need a lot of kinds of goods in our production and life. However, it is impossible for every family to become a factory to purchase many kinds of materials. If anything we need is printed on our own, the first is that the cost will be much higher than that of similar products purchased in the market. Second, after thousands of years of development, the traditional manufacturing industry is more mature than 3D printing technology in terms of production processes. .

Why 3D printing is just a branch of additive manufacturing technology?

Additive manufacturing (abbreviated as AM) technology is a technology that uses a method in which a material is gradually accumulated to manufacture a physical part. Compared with a conventional material removal processing technology, it is an “additive” manufacturing method.

In the past two decades, AM technology has achieved rapid development, and various names such as "Rapid Prototyping," "3D Printing," and "Solid Free-form Fabrication," have been called differently. The characteristics of this technology are expressed from different aspects.

Rapid Prototyping (abbreviated as RP) was born in the late 1980s and is a new type of molding technology based on material accumulation. It is considered to be a major achievement in the manufacturing field in the past 20 years. It can automatically, directly, quickly and accurately transform the design idea into a prototype with a certain function or directly manufacture a part, thus providing an efficient and low-cost realization method for parts prototype production, verification of new design ideas, and the like.

At present, domestic media, experts, and scholars are accustomed to calling rapid prototyping technology “3D printing” or “three-dimensional printing”, which is more vivid, but in reality, “3D printing” or “three-dimensional printing” is just a branch of rapid prototyping. Representative part of the rapid prototyping process (as shown).

Scope of Additive Manufacturing The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F42 has a clear conceptual definition of additive manufacturing and 3D printing: Additive manufacturing is the process of linking materials to objects based on 3-D CAD data, relative to subtractive manufacturing. It is usually a layer by layer process. 3D printing refers to the use of print heads, nozzles, or other printing techniques to deposit materials to create objects. 3D printing is also commonly used to refer to "additive manufacturing" techniques. When referring to devices, 3D printing refers to relative prices or low overall functionality. End of additive manufacturing equipment.

From a broad perspective, based on design data, the automated accumulation of materials (including liquids, powders, wires, or blocks, etc.) into a solid structure can be considered as an additive manufacturing technique.

Why is there a limited market for 3D printing technology?

The entire additive manufacturing market can be divided into three major categories of equipment, materials and services according to the value chain.

In 2012, the equipment market was 620 million U.S. dollars, accounting for only 28% of the market capacity, including equipment hardware, software, system updates, and after-sales support; the material market was 420 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 19%; the service market accounted for 54%, mainly from service providers' use of equipment for the processing of parts and components income.

According to relevant data, the following figure shows the statistics of the industry and installation of 3D printing equipment in various countries. In 2012, the 3D printing industry in China achieved an output value of around 300 million yuan, and the world’s 3 billion yuan was about 10 billion yuan. According to the China 3D Printing Technology Industry Alliance, the output value of the 3D printing industry in China exceeded 1 billion yuan in 2013. In the future, China will become the world's largest 3D printing technology market.

Statistics on Industrial and Installation of 3D Printing Equipment in Various Countries (1988~2012)

In fact, the 3D printing market has faced limited capacity for a long period of time, and global output value has been hovering around 1 billion US dollars for a long time. According to the estimation of Wallers Associates, by 2019, the revenue of global 3D printing products and services will reach 6.9 billion U.S. dollars, of which the component manufacturing business is expected to account for 80%. From this perspective, the development of the 3D printing industry still has a long way to go.

3D printing can produce a physical sample in a relatively short period of time. Its efficiency is higher than that of traditional industrial processing methods. Therefore, it is suitable for rapid development of small batch production or product prototypes. From the cost curve, in addition to the design cost, the production cost is close to the horizontal line. The traditional manufacturing method has a large initial investment, but its cost will be quickly flattened as the output increases, so the cost curve is left high and right low. This simple reality determines that 3D printing and traditional manufacturing have their own price advantage areas. Only in the case where the production quantity falls below a certain limit, 3D printing has the advantages of cost and time, which is its commercial value.

At present, the main groups in the domestic market to purchase 3D printers are mainly industrial customers, such as commercial vehicles, aerospace, consumer electronics, education, cultural and creative, medical, footwear, and home appliance industries.

The application field of 3D printing and the positioning of its share of 3D printers have always been R&D equipment, which is used in the front end of new product development and is used as a hand-board model. As a result, more than 90% of installed customers in the market today are industrial (commercial) customers. Although the number of civil customers (personal 3D printer customers, home 3D printer customers) is increasing, the installed capacity is still very small.

In addition, due to the limitations of the three-dimensional printing materials and inherent process principles, the performance of the printed parts is very limited, especially the accuracy, mechanical properties, etc., can not fully meet the requirements of functional parts. Therefore, the service market for three-dimensional printing technology is still limited. of. Such as three-dimensional printing of metal parts, if the metal parts are conventional engineering parts (such as gears, crankshafts, handles, etc.), can be processed using traditional manufacturing processes, then use three-dimensional printing to manufacture this metal parts, regardless of raw material costs, processing costs, There are no advantages in terms of production efficiency, part accuracy, and parts performance. Therefore, three-dimensional printed metal parts need to be identified in their service market positioning (such as metal parts for aerospace industry, medical equipment metal parts, military metal parts, etc.), Only with certain practical significance and production efficiency.

Why is there a new round of 3D printing technology?

As early as 20 or 30 years ago, 3D printing technology has been able to use resin, plastic, gypsum and other materials to make three-dimensional products. In recent years, as the range of materials that can be processed by 3D printing has been expanded to metal materials and biomedical materials, it has successfully recombined the process technologies that existed several decades ago, such as the combination of information technology and the use of lasers and electron beams for surfaces. Engineering and additive manufacturing. In addition, due to the continuous improvement of the quality of key components such as lasers, galvanometers, thermal spray heads and electron guns, 3D printing technology has become more mature. In 2012, US President Barack Obama announced the implementation of a new move to revitalize the United States and established the 3D Printing Innovation Institute. At the same time, the Obama Administration has adopted 3D printing as one of its important supporting technologies for revitalizing the US manufacturing industry.

In response to this boom, in China, 3D printing has changed the wilting trend of “the government is not hurt and the market is not loving” in the past and has suddenly become a favorite of the government, industry, academia, and capital markets. People began to believe that "small quantities and personalization" represented rapid accumulation of wealth, incredible legends, and subversive destruction. Optimists said that in the future, our mold manufacturing industry, machine tool industry, toy industry, and light industry products industry may all be eliminated. Instead, they are 3D printers, resulting in a new round of 3D printing technology.

Why do some people say that 3D printing technology can bring about the "third industrial revolution"?

3D printing is a subversive revolution in traditional manufacturing. Some people even see 3D printers as the shadow of the third industrial revolution, which is similar to that of steam engines and electric power.

Obviously, compared with traditional manufacturing, the production process, personalized requirements and labor costs of 3D printing are of revolutionary significance. From the operating process point of view, the traditional manufacturing process is to cut the raw materials, splicing and connecting, and 3D printing is through software design, layer by layer stacked material to make the product. 3D printing directly manufactures complex plastic products, metal parts, and alloy components by stacking layers of materials, instead of cutting, forging, and bending materials as before. It eliminates the need for many different processes. The components, and then to assemble it, can make small parts without traditional large-scale machine tools.

From the point of view of manufacturing mode, in the past, it was the large-scale production of the production line. In the future, it may be more personalized and custom-made. The time to market is shortened, and it is no longer necessary to stock a large number of parts and components, nor does it require mass production.

3D printing meets more and more demanding personalized consumer demands. The traditional high-volume manufacturing production can provide almost any consumer's most basic consumer products such as food, clothing, clothing, clothing, and clothing. However, these products are standardized, more generic, and can no longer satisfy people's growing needs in terms of personalization. The manual production of personalized things though authentic, excellent quality, rich in content, but the manual production is time-consuming; and 3D printing technology can meet people's pursuit of personalized products desire (such as the market can not buy a product, 3D The printer may be able to satisfy your wish, and it can also greatly increase the productivity of the product.

In terms of production costs, 3D printing can automatically generate physical parts directly from three-dimensional graphics of a computer without the need for machining or any tooling. This greatly shortens the product development cycle, significantly reduces material waste, and improves production efficiency. It reduces production costs; it can also produce parts with extremely complex shape structures that cannot be manufactured using traditional production techniques. In addition, 3D printing has greatly liberated the labor force. A skilled worker can look after several printers. Just as textile workers look after the looms, they can save a lot of labor, and their labor efficiency can be increased several times or even tens of times.

Because of these characteristics, 3D printing is considered to be the result of a revolution in advanced manufacturing technologies and production methods.

Right now, the five major elements of intelligent software, new materials, robots, new manufacturing methods (such as 3D printing), and web-based business services are jointly promoting the development of digital manufacturing. We are about to usher in the third industrial revolution.

It is precisely because of this that the U.S. government has taken the lead in enlarging 3D printing and is trying to become the leader of a new round of industrial revolution and continues to occupy the commanding heights of global industry.

What are the key technologies and bottlenecks of 3D printing technology?

The key technologies of 3D printing technology The key technologies of 3D printing technology need to rely on cutting-edge technologies in many disciplines, mainly including the following aspects:

(1) Material Science. That is, the raw materials used for 3D printing are relatively special, and must be able to be liquefied, powdered, silkified, etc., and can be recombined after the printing is completed, and have acceptable accuracy (such as dimensional accuracy, shape accuracy and surface roughness, etc.), Physical and chemical properties. The performance of the part after 3D printing is determined by the microstructure and structure of the material. Therefore, the material is the key and core of the 3D printing technology.

(2) Information Technology. That is to say, there must be advanced design software and digital tools to assist the designer in creating a three-dimensional digital model of the product, and automatically analyze the printing process according to the model to automatically control the direction of the printing equipment; and provide all necessary printing processing for the three-dimensional printing equipment. Data, such as color information, layered section information, etc., and has a certain processing speed and accuracy.

(3) Precision machinery and components. 3D printing technology adopts the “superposition of each layer” as the processing method. The production of the product requires high precision, and it must have high requirements on the accuracy and stability of the printing equipment; in addition, the key components and elements that constitute the three-dimensional printing equipment The device's accuracy, speed, service life, and reliability present higher requirements.

Objectively speaking, the current 3D printing technology is still immature. As a multidisciplinary high-tech, it is also necessary to invest a great deal of R&D in various related fields to master the complete core technology.

3D Printer Development Bottlenecks (1) Pricing Factors Most desktop 3D printers are priced at around RMB 10,000. Recently, the prices of some domestic desktop 3D printers can be as low as RMB 3,000. For desktop-class 3D printers, since only plastic products can be printed, their use is very limited, and for home users, the cost of using 3D printers is still high because people must understand before printing an item. 3D modeling, then convert the data into a format that can be read by the 3D printer, and then print it.

For industrial-grade 3D printers, the selling price is still high, and the printed parts have certain gaps in terms of accuracy, physical properties and chemical properties from the real functional parts.

(2) Raw material 3D printing is not a difficult and difficult technology. It differs from ordinary printing in terms of printed materials.

Israel's Object is the company that has mastered the most printed materials. It can already use more than 10 basic materials, and based on this, mix and match more than 100 kinds of materials. However, the variety of these materials is far from the materials in the world where people live. Not only that, the price of these materials is a few hundred kilograms cheaper, and about 40,000 yuan more expensive.

In addition, for metal 3D printing and biomedical 3D printing, there are fewer kinds of raw materials that can be used at present, and the prices of these kinds of raw materials are also relatively expensive.

(3) The cost of social risks is the same as if nuclear reactions can both generate electricity and destroy. In the early days, 3D printing technology made people see a series of hidden concerns, and the future development will also cause many people to worry about it. If anything can be completely copied, what can be thought of can create something that sounds beautiful, but also really scary.

(4) There is a consensus in 3D printing that 3D printing uses layers to make items. If you want to make items more elaborate, you need to reduce the thickness of each layer; if you want to increase the printing speed, you need to increase the thickness of the layer; These will inevitably affect the accuracy and quality of the product. If a product with the same accuracy is produced, 3D printing has no cost advantage compared with traditional large-scale industrial production, especially considering the time cost and scale cost.

(5) There is no standard for the entire industry, and it is difficult to form an industrial chain. Nowadays, 3D printer manufacturers are in full bloom, such as the Warring States Period. The lack of standards for 3D printers, the same 3D model for different printers, the results are very different.

In addition, there is a lack of standards for printing raw materials. At present, 3D printer manufacturers want consumers to buy their own printing materials so that they can obtain stable income. Although this is understandable, after all, ordinary printers also follow this model, but the consistency of the raw materials used by 3D printer manufacturers is so poor that they vary from form to content, which makes it difficult for material manufacturers to enter, and both R&D costs and supply risks are high. Very large, it is difficult to form an industrial chain. On the surface, 3D printers are bundled with 3D printing materials. In fact, they are bundled with printers and are not conducive to reducing costs and resisting risks.

(6) Unexpected processes It refers to the pre-treatment process required before 3D printing and the post-processing process after printing is completed.

Many people may think that 3D printing is to design a model on a computer. Regardless of how complex the surface and structure of the model are, the 3D printer can print out a physical product at the press of a button. In fact, this impression is incorrect. Really designing a 3D CAD model, especially a complex model, requires a lot of engineering and structural knowledge, requires meticulous skills, and adapts to specific conditions, such as plastic fused deposition modeling printing, if it is inside a complex part Without a properly designed support structure, the printed part is likely to be deformed. Therefore, the pre-treatment process should include: preparation of a three-dimensional CAD model, selection of print forming direction, determination of molding process parameters, and the like.

In addition, the post-processing steps after the 3D printing is completed are generally not unavoidable. The media described 3D printing as an artifact that can be used directly after printing, but in fact, some post-processing processes are also needed after printing, such as: removal of supports, sintering, assembly, cutting, surface grinding, polishing, spraying, etc. These post-treatment processes usually require a lot of manual work and processing time.

Steel Flange

Steel flange refers to forged steel flanges with material A105, A350 LF2 CL1, P250GH, A280GH, C22.8, A694 F52/60/65, A182 F11/22/91, A182 F304/304L, A182 F316/316L, etc.

Carbon Steel Blind Flanges,Carbon Steel JIS Slip On Flange,Carbon Steel A105 Flanges,Carbon Steel Flanges

New Century Forging Co., Ltd , https://www.ncmflange.com