From This Day, Forward 3D technology is all around us. It’s changing how we design and manufacture products, make movies, heal our bodies and interact with the world. Work that used to take place on a page or screen now reaches into space. And faster than ever before, 3D technology is transforming our world.
To see the impact of 3D, look to the realm of design. Designers led the way in embracing 3D CAD and then 3D printing, incorporating more and more physical models into their iterations and thinking with their heads and their hands. And they’ve reaped the benefi ts: design problems surface sooner and solutions are less costly. Inspiration happens faster. Ultimately, products are better and consumers are happier. Black & Decker makes a safer tree trimmer and Lamborghini makes a faster car because reviews and trials
are more frequently executed on models very much resembling a fi nal product.
are coming to the production fl oor. When we at Stratasys (and publications like The Economist, Forbes and The New York Times) call 3D printing “the next industrial revolution,” we’re not exaggerating.
A few examples of the Stratasys 3D Printer line.
Now, 3D printing applications are expanding from design into production, and freeing manufacturers to build without traditional restrictions. DDM stands for direct digital manufacturing, a way to produce a fi nished product, part or tool straight from a computer design. More importantly, DDM means the rewards of faster, leaner, smarter methods
A hundred years ago, the assembly line changed the world with mass production. It brought luxuries to the middle class, good wages to workers and economies of scale to investors. Today, companies like BMW already know that DDM is mass production’s heir apparent. One factory-fl oor fi xture, a nameplate-application device, offers an elegant example. Liberated from tooling constraints, BMW engineers reduced the device’s weight by half and replaced its blocky stock-metal handles with ergonomic grips — a great relief to workers who might lift the fi xture hundreds of times per shift.
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3D PRINTING IS GOING TOCHANGE IT.
OUR GAME,
3D printing means virtual inventories and low-volume production, which for manufacturers is the next big step.