3D Printing Technology

By —
Soumya Ranjan (2nd year)

Digital manufacturing technologies, also called 3D printers or manufacturing additives, generate physical objects through a successive addition of materials from the bottom up with the help of a geometrical representation or computer aided design (CAD) where we can test a physical prototype and when faults are detected, you can change the CAD file and print out a new version the next day, instead of cutting or grinding a larger mould or casting molten material in a mould and is considered as one of the fast emerging technology with a benefits include less waste and the ability to print customized designs like complex grid structures which are difficult to construct otherwise.

3D printing is not only rising exponentially but also making larger products and researchers are still trying to come up with creative methods for printing and creating stronger materials, combining many materials in the same product often.

Rapid Prototyping is one of the main benefits of 3D printing technology. Fast prototyping ensures that a custom component can be built, manufactured and tested in the shortest possible time. The design may also be updated, if necessary, without affecting the production process speed adversely.

Although many people are just now aware that the technology is being used, engineers and developers have made rapid prototypes of components for aerospace, defence, locomotive, healthcare, automobile industries with massive and costly 3-D printer’s for nearly three decades. With the inclusion of the 3d printing technology into the main production unit by some of tech giants like GE, Lockheed martin.







Lattice structure using 3D printers

Printing parts and goods also enables companies to build more complex structures, such as steel panel honeycombing or geometries that were previously too fine to mill and mechanical elements such as sealed gears have hollow cavities in solid components and in components. That is why GE Aviation has started to print the fuel pumps of certain jet motors. It anticipates that over 45,000 of the same design would turn out a year, so one might suppose that traditional production methods are more acceptable. However, printing technology makes a bucket which was used to be placed in a single piece with 20 separately casted pieces and could reduce the cost by 75% and CNC machining and injection moulding need several costly machines, plus a lot higher cost of labour because expert machine operators and technical staff are needed in order to operate them.





Not only 3d printing helps in industrial manufacturing but also in the medical or healthcare as 3D bio-printing has already been performed on a broad scale, with worldwide researchers printing live human tissue and complex circulatory systems for artificial skin and even organ manufacturing.

Living cells spreading in a 3D scaffold -- from left to right: week 1, week 3 week 5. Top: 3D setup, bottom: one layer only. The process was developed by researchers at TU Wien to create precision bio-printing.

AS said by Aleksandr Ovsianikov, head of the 3D Printing and Bio-fabrication research group at the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at TU Wien "Using these 3D scaffolds, it is possible to investigate the behaviour of cells with previously unattainable accuracy It is possible to study the spread of diseases, and if stem cells are used, it is even possible to produce tailor-made tissue in this way”.



Plating using 3D printer



3D printed metal finishing makes the components durable and heat- and electricity-conductive. You have many metals for your finish to choose from. Metal finishing will turn your printed project into something that provides the advantages of a metal exterior with the light weight of the printed material inside, by surface materials like copper, gold, nickel, and silver. Occasionally, printed items will need extra thickness for durability. If you want to electroplate with palladium to increase the thickness and appearance, plan for the added depth by adjusting the printed model’s dimensions as well as electronic components can be printed by a 3D printing device and silver coated to make the piece conductive.