3D printing, are you ready?

Like the steam engine in 1750, printing in 1450, and the transistor in 1950, 3D printing will also change the world in a long time. A report in The Economist two years ago brought 3D printing to the fore, and the heat of this emerging field continues to this day. The new model of 3D printing “digital manufacturing” seems to herald the traditional large-scale, centralized There is an alternative to manufacturing - "distributed manufacturing" of personalized, on-demand production.

Some people even exclaimed that 3D printing will lead the arrival of the third industrial revolution!

Under the high reputation, is it really difficult?

Indeed, we have seen that the Obama administration, who advocated the return of manufacturing to the United States, is vigorously promoting the popularization of 3D printing technology in American schools, and governments including China have also formulated 3D printing industry support plan; media reports and public opinion discussions are overwhelming; investors are flocking to stocks of 3D printing concepts, and the stock prices of industry giants Stratasys, 3DSystem and ExOne are surging. It seems that 3D printing is indeed a disruptor.

But Let's look at another set of data: in 2012, the global sales of 3D printers was only 42,000 units, of which 20,000 units were sold by Stratasys; the global sales in 2013 just passed the threshold of 100,000 units. According to Analysys International's report, the entire industry market, including 3D printing equipment, accessories and services, was only $2.5 billion in 2013, which is less than the annual output value of a large company.

Therefore, behind the hustle and bustle, What is the color geometry of the new technology of "3D printing"? Is it really ready to take over the mantle of traditional manufacturing? Has the concept of enterprises and individuals changed enough to accept the application of this technology in enterprise production and personal consumption?

To this end, "CEConline" conducted a questionnaire survey on 3D printing among more than 60 entrepreneurs or managers above the VP level. The results show that nearly 90% of the respondents are interested in 3D printing. Some people have some understanding, but most of them are only at the stage of "heard of", but 31% of the respondents said that enterprises "urgently need" to use 3D printing technology; when it comes to whether 3D printing can lead the "third industry" Revolution", 48% of the respondents agreed. (Please see the questionnaire results: "3D printing, what do you think?")

From the above survey, we can find that the popularity of 3D printing is still very limited and its application is not widely used, but corporate decision makers still maintain a high interest in this technology. I am very optimistic about the development prospects of this technology, and many companies have already tried to use 3D printing technology in their enterprises.

This survey result is consistent with the feeling of Chen Wenjuan, chairman of Weishitech Technology Co., Ltd. As a leading enterprise in the R&D and sales of desktop-level 3D printers in China, Vistech's market is mainly in foreign countries, and the domestic customer base is dominated by enterprises, while individuals and other consumers account for a small proportion. "More than 80% of domestic customers are designers and engineers, and 3D printers are a good helper for them in design and development. The other 20% are personal hobbyists, or some education departments, etc. Overall, everyone has not yet 3D printed a cup by themselves. Or the habit of other small things." Chen Wenjuan introduced, "But after many people came to see what a 3D printer can do, they immediately bought it with cash."

What can 3D printing do?

3D printing, also known as "additive manufacturing", is based on digital model files and uses bondable materials such as powdered metal or plastic to construct objects by stacking and accumulating layer by layer. . This unique production method determines that 3D printing is very suitable for mold manufacturing and model making in the product development stage. Therefore, 3D printing may be used in a series of industries that require product prototype development, such as consumer electronics, architectural design, automobiles, animation, etc.

"Our previous models were all plaster sculptures, and it was very troublesome to modify, sometimes equivalent to remaking the whole. And the sculptures could not keep the same molding samples every time." Engaged in original animation and its derivatives Niu Liang, production director of Harbin Qijian Digital Animation Co., Ltd., who designed the product, said, "With 3D printing, it can be modified through software, and good designs can be 100% preserved."

Engaged in interior and exterior decoration design Hao Xing, design director of Hangzhou Quadrant Soft Decoration Design Co., Ltd., also believes that the application of 3D printing in the production and modification of models and the production of prototypes is very convenient and efficient. "In the past, we needed to take the drawings to the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts or some other sculpture factories for proofing. It was time-consuming and expensive to hire someone to make the model. Now we can print it out by ourselves with a 3D printer, saving time and effort."

3D printing is not only useful in the creative design industry, but also can be embedded in 3D printing in the front-end R&D stage of the traditional manufacturing industry to achieve process optimization. "When we didn't have 3D printers before, we all went to CNC to process small samples. The processing cycle was long, the modification was troublesome, and the cost was relatively high. Now, we can use 3D printing to form the product in one day, and hand it over to the customer for verification." Chen Gong, head of Foshan Yujie Sanitary Ware Technology Development Department, which specializes in ceramic sanitary ware products, said. Ceramic bathrooms have high requirements on the aesthetics of the appearance. A product often needs to be repeatedly confirmed with customers. Through 3D printing models, the cost of proofing can be effectively reduced and the efficiency can be improved.

In addition to optimizing the process in the model and prototype stages and greatly improving efficiency, 3D printing can also realize the design of some non-standard parts that are difficult to shape with traditional molds. "Traditional industrial production is inseparable from mold casting, but some non-standard parts with very complex structures are difficult to manufacture through molds. 3D printing can produce various non-standard parts at will." Chen Wenjuan pointed out.

On the other hand, 3D printing can also be used in the direct production of some products that do not require high output and material, but require high customization. For example, when Hao Xing was designing interior soft decoration, he used 3D printing to directly print the finished products for some personalized lamp shades that may only be used in a certain indoor space. Therefore, the finished product printed with plastic can also be used." Hao Xing said.

The application of the above aspects is mainly in the industrial design stage, mainly through desktop 3D printers, focusing on the high efficiency and low cost of 3D printing in shaping. The printing materials are mainly plastic raw materials such as ABS resin and polylactic acid (PLA), and the printing strength and accuracy cannot be compared with traditional processes. But by using industrial-grade 3D printers, as well as some high-strength materials, this problem can be partially solved.

"In aerospace, for example, our printers can directly print some parts that are used in aircraft assembly," said Jonathan Jaglom, general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at Stratasys. With a series of patented technologies such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and advanced 3D printing raw materials such as titanium alloy and carbon fiber, Stratasys' main customers are located in high-tech fields such as medical (dental), automotive, aerospace, and defense. In addition to directly printing aircraft components, industrial-grade 3D printers can also print hands, and even human bones.

In addition to its many uses in industrial production, 3D printing also has natural advantages in personal and household use. Because the biggest feature of 3D printing is "freely shape, make at will", after the printer is connected to the computer, as long as individuals with certain imagination and design ability can use 3D modeling software to easily print 3D models into entities. "Things like water cups and mobile phone cases can be made at home. What consumers buy online in the future may no longer be physical, but 3D model data packages one by one, and then printed out through their own printers." Main Desktop Jin Tao, general manager of Hangzhou Mingzhan Technology Co., Ltd., which develops and sells high-level 3D printers, said when describing the future home 3D printing market.

In short, Jonathan pointed out that the application of 3D printing has significant effects in at least the following aspects: First, the cycle from product development to market launch is greatly shortened; the second is to reduce costs; Creativity; the fourth is to improve the confidentiality of creativity. In addition, Jonathan believes that 3D printing can also bring about optimization and innovation in organizational management. "For example, the original product design may need to be reviewed and revised layer by layer by managers at different levels of the enterprise before the samples can be presented before the decision-making level. If necessary Re-modification will result in a great waste of human resources. With 3D printing, decision-makers can participate in product development from the very beginning to achieve flat decision-making.”

The advantage is also the short board

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However, the technical characteristics of 3D printing are both advantages and disadvantages.

First of all, the molding mode of "lamination manufacturing" prints a three-dimensional object, which can take a few hours or a few days. Compared with the production time in the large-scale production stage, it is inefficient. Therefore, Difficult to apply to large-scale manufacturing.

Secondly, printable materials restrict the use and popularization of 3D printing. Although it is cheap to print with plastic materials, it is difficult to achieve industrial standards in terms of accuracy, strength, and surface smoothness, so it can often only be used as a model. Although metal, ceramics and other materials can partially solve this problem, but the price is high. Except for a limited number of materials, most of the other materials still cannot be used in the field of 3D printing. "The most difficult part of 3D printing promotion is the material. Because theoretically, as long as any material can be glued and stacked, it can be printed with 3D printing. Come out." Chen Wenjuan pointed out, "The current problem is that the materials that can be used for 3D printing are still very limited."

In addition, the popularity of 3D printing is still limited. First, the popularity of 3D printers is insufficient. Although desktop 3D printers have dropped to the price range of thousands to tens of thousands of yuan, it will take time to enter the homes of ordinary people. Industrial-grade 3D printers can easily cost hundreds of thousands or millions of yuan, and only a few large and medium-sized enterprises can afford them.

Large-scale promotion in the consumer market can be expected

The 3D printing industry is still in its infancy. As an emerging technology, 3D printing has broad prospects in medical, aerospace and other high-tech industries. Needless to say. With the emergence of more printing materials in the future, we can imagine that it is possible to print more directly used parts, and even to print the entire aircraft shell. It may bring revolutionary changes to the medical industry.

In terms of personal and household applications, due to the low requirements for technology and raw materials, and more manufacturers continue to launch desktop-level 3D printers with affordable prices, 3D printing at this stage has the potential for large-scale promotion. condition. Both Jin Tao and Chen Wenjuan said that although the company's current main customers are still enterprises, the development trend of 3D printing is household consumer applications, and they will focus more on the promotion of the consumer 3D printing market in the future.

To realize the idea of 3D printing for household use, an important part is to form an "application market" of 3D printing. Just as the popularization of smartphone operating systems requires the enrichment and popularization of app applications, home 3D printing also requires a common platform to provide more 3D printing models to lower the threshold for consumers to use.

Following this line of thought, Stratasys acquired Makerbot, a 3D printing company focused on desktop applications, in mid-2013. This industry heavyweight acquisition not only allows Stratasys to fill a gap in the desktop 3D printer market, but equally important is the acquisition of Thingiverse.com, which is maintained by Makerbot. This website is the world's largest 3D material community. Most of the materials shared by users here are 3D models of actual items designed by themselves, which can be directly loaded into 3D printers for printing. Therefore, it can not only solve the model source problem of 3D printing users, but also may form an industrial chain.

Complementing the tradition, not subverting

Looking forward to the future, 3D printing still has many technical difficulties to overcome, and its technical characteristics determine that 3D printing will not be the same as the traditional one. The manufacturing model forms direct competition. "I must say humbly that 3D printing cannot replace traditional manufacturing," Jonathan said frankly. "It will complement traditional manufacturing more and improve efficiency. In some niche customizations In this field, 3D printing can be more useful."

In terms of marketing, 3D printing still has a long way to go, "3D printing is still in the market 'education' stage. We often Instead of telling consumers you should buy our product, tell them '3D printing is useful and you should try it'," says Jonathan.

Going back to the question at the beginning of the article, we can say with certainty that 3D printing will not be able to replace the traditional manufacturing mode in the foreseeable future, and 3D printing is hailed as "leading the third industrial revolution", There is a suspicion of exaggeration. To put it more pertinently, 3D printing is only one of the driving factors of a new round of industrial transformation. It outlines the prospect of "digital future" together with new technologies such as the Internet, big data, and intelligent robots.