Additive manufacturing technology: a turning point for the future of manufacturing?


Additive manufacturing technology is now becoming the standard for manufacturing companies. It promotes faster production times while reducing operating costs. Additive manufacturing services are relatively new, but it is improving manufacturing by:

1. Facilitating rapid product development;
2. supporting lean manufacturing
3. increasing flexibility in product creation

Rapid prototyping enhances technological advancements in manufacturing to ensure highly customized products, thereby increasing overall profits while improving customer satisfaction.

What is Additive Manufacturing?

Rapid prototyping is a group of technologies used to quickly build models of the physical parts of a building using 3D computer-aided design (CAD). The parts of the building model are realized through 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing. 3D printing involves adding layer after layer of material to achieve a three-dimensional object, which is known as molding. Other techniques used in additive manufacturing include molding, casting, high-speed machining, extrusion

Molding is described as either high-fidelity or low-fidelity molding. High-fidelity molding is a design that matches the idea of the final product, while low-fidelity molding is when the final product does not match the initial idea.

Different types of rapid prototyping designs:

1. Stereolithography (SLA)

  SLA is an additive manufacturing process that is inexpensive and fast. It was the first ever type of 3D printing.SLA uses a can of photosensitive liquid that turns solid when it comes into contact with computer-controlled ultraviolet light. Once the SLA parts have solidified, they cannot be turned back into liquid; the process is irreversible.

2. Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

SLS is also an additive manufacturing technology best suited for plastics and metal molding manufacturing.SLS uses a high-powered laser to heat and sinter layers of powder to create a molded shape. It is important to note that SLS products are much weaker than SLA molding. However, SLS is much cheaper, requires less time and labor, and offers high productivity.SLS parts are rough and require more finishing after the final part is obtained.

3. Material Injection or Fused Deposition Molding (FDM)

Material jetting is also an additive manufacturing process that is fast, affordable, easy to use, and inexpensive. fdm is best used for product development. fdm uses thermoplastic filaments that are melted inside the barrel of a print nozzle to create the molding. The printer works by moving the nozzle back and forth. Through the use of a computerized deposition program, the plastic is layered to create the molding.

4. Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) or Selective Laser Melting (SLM)

SLM is the most commonly used type of additive manufacturing. This method is popular in aerospace, automotive, defense and medical companies. It is the most popular method because it is less expensive and produces high quality parts. The method uses high power or electron beams to melt the binder layered with powder to create the production part or molding.PBF uses power based materials such as: copper, aluminum, stainless steel.

5. Sheet Lamination or Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)

Sheet lamination is less complex than SLS and SLM. The process does not require you to be in a specially controlled environment to achieve the results you want. Sheet lamination works by using a laser beam to place layers of metal, plastic and ceramic cutouts together to create the desired CAD design. Each layer is glued together until the entire part is complete. However, this method is labor-intensive and requires a lot of time.

6. Digital Light Processing (DLP)

DLP is almost identical to the SLA method. dLP uses resin polymerization that is cured using a beam of light. dLP's light source comes from a projector, while SLA's light source comes from a laser beam. dLP is cheaper and faster than SLP, but it requires more infrastructure in terms of post-curing.


Additive Manufacturing Helps Save Time and Costs

Additive manufacturing ensures that expensive tools and setups are not required. The same 3D printer can be used to produce different geometries for molding. It minimizes design flaws and errors. Using 3D printing, designers can ensure that all defects are fixed early in the product development process. Rapid prototyping development ensures that the company avoids expensive tooling and design changes during the development process. Examples of rapid prototyping development help designers test molding that performs and looks similar to the final product, reducing the risk of usage and manufacturing issues before a company moves into production. It simplifies the process of creative exploration. Additive molding design reduces the risk of creative exploration because designers can bring their ideas to life in a short period of time. Molding validation makes it easier to understand and refine designs.

Some of the areas where rapid prototyping processes are applied include:

Development of aerospace and defense equipment

Additive manufacturing services are quite popular in the aerospace and defense industry. These services are needed when testing the molding before approving it for production. Additive molding designs are excellent in testing designs that would be too costly to test using traditional methods.

For manufacturing automotive parts

Additive manufacturing has been a key part of automotive parts manufacturing. Additive manufacturing has the ability to produce automotive parts with integrated features without the need for tooling. This leads to a significant reduction in development and production costs.

What are the new areas of rapid prototyping technology:

1. additive manufacturing development using artificial intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence is slowly becoming an integral part of additive manufacturing development. Making data-oriented decisions and seamless testing is one of the essential features of superior product development for rapid prototyping.

2. Automated driving using additive development

Due to the increased interest in autonomous driving, there is a demand for new control platforms and sensor technologies to increase the speed and reduce the cost of product development. Companies are now using additive manufacturing to develop the required test and development frameworks.

3. In creating physical 3D maps

Rapid prototyping is now being used to create city models of 3D scale objects with dependent landscapes and a continuous surface which are interpolated from statistical data. There are already examples of produced 3D models being used to demonstrate the capabilities of this technology. New web-based services allow 3D models to be overlaid with satellite imagery, user-supplied GPS tracks and topographic maps.


Conclusion

Rapid prototyping technology is rapidly changing manufacturing. New technological advances are emerging every day to improve customer satisfaction, drive efficiency, and reduce production costs.



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