3-D PRINTING

Content

1) INTRODUCTION

2) HISTORY OF 3-D PRINTING

3) GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF 3-D PRINTING

4) APPLICATION OF 3-D PRINTING

5) NEEDS OF 3-D PRINTING

6) CONCLUSION

7) REFERENCE
INTRODUCTION
3D printing has been around for decades but has experienced a surge of popularity in
recent years. The beauty of 3D printing is that it’s a simple technology that can be
applied to all sorts of fields. .The 3D printing process builds a three-dimensional object
from a computer-aided design (CAD) model, usually by successively adding material
layer by layer, which is why it is also called additive manufacturing, and unlike
conventional machining, casting and forging processes, where material is removed from
a stock item or poured into a mold and shaped by means of dies, presses and
hammers.

The term "3D printing" covers a variety of processes in which material is joined or
solidified under computer control to create a three-dimensional object, with material
being added together (such as liquid molecules or powder grains being fused together),
typically layer by layer. In the 1990s, 3D-printing techniques were considered suitable
only for the production of functional or aesthetical prototypes and a more appropriate
term was rapid prototyping the term additive manufacturing can be used
synonymously with "3D printing". One of the key advantages of 3D printing is the ability
to produce very complex shapes or geometries, and a prerequisite for producing any 3D
printed part is a digital 3D model or a CAD file.

History:
Early additive manufacturing equipment and materials were developed in the 1980s. ] In
1981, Hideo Kodama of Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute invented two
additive methods for fabricating three-dimensional plastic models with photo-
hardening thermoset polymer, where the UV exposure area is controlled by a mask
pattern or a scanning fiber transmitter.

1988: The technology used by most 3D printers to date especially hobbyist and
consumer-oriented models is fused deposition modeling, a special application of
plastic extrusion, developed in 1988 by S. Scott Crump and commercialized by his
company Stratasys, which marketed its first FDM machine in 1992.

1993 : The term 3D printing originally referred to a powder bed process employing
standard and custom inkjet print heads, developed at MIT in 1993 and commercialized
by Soligen Technologies, Extrude Hone Corporation, and Z Corp.

The 2010s were the first decade in which metal end use parts such as engine brackets
and large nuts would be grown (either before or instead of machining) in job
production rather than obligately being machined from bar stock or plate.
 General Principal:

Modeling:
3D printable models may be created with a computer-aided design (CAD) package, via
a 3D scanner, or by a plain digital camera and photogrammetry software. 3D printed
models created with CAD result in reduced errors and can be corrected before printing,
allowing verification in the design of the object before it is printed. The manual modeling
process of preparing geometric data for 3D computer graphics is similar to plastic arts
such as sculpting. 3D scanning is a process of collecting digital data on the shape and
appearance of a real object, creating a digital model based on it.

CAD models can be saved in the stereolithography file format (STL), a de facto CAD file
format for additive manufacturing that stores data based on triangulations of the surface
of CAD models. A newer CAD file format, the Additive Manufacturing File format
(AMF) was introduced in 2011 to solve this problem. It stores information using curved
triangulation

Printing:
Before printing a 3D model from an STL file, it must first be examined for errors.
Most CAD applications produce errors in output STL files, of the following types:

1) holes;

2) faces normals;

3) self-intersections;

4) noise shells;

5) manifold errors.

Printer resolution describes layer thickness and X–Y resolution in dots per inch (dpi)
or micrometers (µm). Typical layer thickness is around 100 μm (250 DPI), although
some machines can print layers as thin as 16 μm (1,600 DPI).[39] X–Y resolution is
comparable to that of laser printers. The particles (3D dots) are around 50 to 100 μm
(510 to 250 DPI) in diameter. For that printer resolution, specifying a mesh resolution
of 0.01–0.03 mm and a chord length ≤ 0.016 mm generate an optimal STL output file for
a given model input file.
 Construction of a model with contemporary methods can take anywhere from several
hours to several days, depending on the method used and the size and complexity of
the model. Additive systems can typically reduce this time to a few hours, although it
varies widely depending on the type of machine used and the size and number of
models being produced simultaneously. Traditional techniques like injection
moulding can be less expensive for manufacturing polymer products in high quantities,
but additive manufacturing can be faster, more flexible and less expensive when
producing relatively small quantities of parts.

3.Finishing:
Though the printer-produced resolution is sufficient for many applications, greater
accuracy can be achieved by printing a slightly oversized version of the desired object
in standard resolution and then removing material using a higher-resolution subtractive
process.[43]

The layered structure of all Additive Manufacturing processes leads inevitably to a

strain-stepping effect on part surfaces which are curved or tilted in respect to the
building platform. The effects strongly depend on the orientation of a part surface inside
the building process.

Some printing techniques require internal supports to be built for overhanging

features during construction. These supports must be mechanically removed or
dissolved upon completion of the print.
Application:
1.Education:
More and more schools are incorporating 3D printing into their curriculum as tools to
better prepare kids for the future. Makerspaces, equipped with printers, CNC machines,
and other tools, have become common. Also, 3D printers can be found in public
libraries already. Not only do 3D printers allow students to create in completely new
ways, but there’s also a lot of potential for educational models.

2. Prototyping And Manufacturing:

3D printing was originally developed as a faster alternative of prototyping – so it’s no

surprise it is still a useful application in 2018! A big advantage of using 3D printing is its
versatility and flexibility, which makes it perfect for small-scale manufacturing and
prototyping.

An injection-molded prototype might cost hundreds of thousands and take weeks to

make a single mold. That’s not good if you’re trying to iterate and improve on each
design.
3. Medicine:

In the future, we may be able to 3D print heart transplants.

In recent years, there’s been a lot of 3D printing applications to the world of medicine,
from bioprinting and surgery preparation to prosthetic.
An application that’s a little farther in the future is bioprinting, or 3D printing cells and
tissue. The dream is that one day, we’ll be able to 3D print bones and organs for
patients who need them, rather than waiting for donors. For now, we’re still working
on bioprinting human tissue.

4. Jwellery
One unexpected application of 3D printing is in the fashion industry. 3D printed jewelry
has become a popular niche for those searching for a unique look.

With the introduction of 3D printers, jewelry-makers can experiment with designs not
possible using traditional jewelry-making methods. In addition, 3D printers make it
cheaper to produce individual, unique pieces of jewelry or customize pieces for
customers.
NEEDS OF 3-D PRINTING :
A. Machine costs:
Machine operation costs play a very small part in the overall cost of the manufacturing
process. While the energy required to create parts in an industrial environment can
prove to be high, the ability to develop and create complex parts and products in one
step creates an increased level of efficiency and saves on time. Therefore, the cost of
running the machines is offset by the savings made during the manufacturing process.

B. Labour costs:
One of the good points of 3D printing is the fact that labour costs are kept low. Unlike
traditional manufacturing where many different people may be required to operate a
number of machines or a production line is required to piece together the product, 3D
printing removes this. Each 3D printer will require an operator to start the machine
before it begins an automated process of creating the uploaded design. Therefore, the
labour costs are significantly lower as there is no need for skilled machinists or
operators to form part of the process.

C. Less waste:
Many manufacturing methods result in high costs and waste. An advantage of 3D
printing is that it is unique in the way that it only uses the required amount of material to
create a part or product and that means very little waste. While many of the more
traditional methods will have waste that can be re-used or recycled it still takes time and
effort to determine just how and when the waste will be used.

D. Reduce Time:
One of the big advantages of 3D printing is that parts and products can be
manufactured a lot quicker than they can using traditional methods. Complex designs
can be created as a CAD model and then transformed into a reality in just a few hours.
This delivers design ideas in a way that enables them to be verified quickly and
designed in a short space of time. This is so advantageous over traditional methods as
they can take weeks or months to go from the design stage to prototype stage and right
through to the production process.
Conclusion:
It is generally accepted that 3D printing will be a revolutionary force in manufacturing,
whether positive or negative. Despite concerns over counterfeiting, many companies
are already using the technology to repeatably produce intricate components, for
example in automotive and aerospace manufacturing.

Reference:
1) http://www.wikipedia.org/
2) http://studymafia.org/
3) Tractus3d.com