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TechWaTch Taking Printing to the Next Dimension By Steve Morkovsky, Risk Control Technology Specialist, One Beacon Technology Insurance


thus undermines economies of scale. It may have as profound an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did. Just as nobody could have pre- dicted the impact of the steam engine in 1750 or the printing press in 1450, or the transistor in 1950 —it is impos- sible to foresee the long-term impact of 3D printing. But the technology is coming, and it is likely to disrupt every field it touches. 3D printing brings a CAD (com-


T


puter aided design) drawing to life more quickly than had ever before been possible. The concept has been around for 30+ years, is used in al- most every industry, and has even worked its way into many homes as the technology has become increas- ingly affordable. The original uses of 3D printing were for very rapid pro- totyping, but now uses run the gamut, ranging from personal to commercial applications. Historically, manufacturing has


involved removing material from a sol- id substance (subtractive). Think woodworking and using a saw to shape what you are building. 3D print- ing, on the other hand, is an "additive" manufacturing (AM) process where layers of material are "added" onto the


hree-dimensionalprinting makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands and


object in development, typically one very small layer at a time. This ap- proach has shortened the typical pro- totype manufacturing process from days down to hours. There are currently several dif-


ferent 3D printing technologies which use a variety of different mate- rials, although the list continues to grow as new materials and processes are introduced. These are: extrusion, wire, granular, laminated, and light polymerized.


Extrusion involves fused deposition modeling (FDM), and uses such ma- terials as thermoplastics (PLA, ABS), HDPE, eutectic metals, and edible materials.


Wire uses such technologies as Elec- tron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF3) and can use almost any met- al alloy.


Granular can use at least five differ- ent technologies. The first, direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), can work with almost any metal alloy. Electron beam melting (EBM) is used with titanium alloys. Selective heat sintering (SHS) works with thermoplastic powder. Selective laser sintering (SLS) uses thermo- plastics, metal powders, ceramic powders. Powder bed and inkjet head


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3D printing, and plaster-based 3D printing (PP), work with plaster.


Laminated uses laminated object manufacturing (LOM), and the mate- rials are paper, metal foil, and plastic film.


Light polymerized uses stereolith- ography (SLA) or digital light pro- cessing (DLP) and photopolymer ma- terials.


The initial uses of 3D printing


were primarily for hobbyists and for rapid prototyping. However, with im- proved and faster printing technology, the manufacturing realm has expand- ed greatly. 3D printing is optimal for manufacturing products with certain criteria — low volume manufacturing runs for a highly complex product to traditional manufacturing such as plastic injection molding. Due to the initial investments required for man- ufacturing and setting up the tooling (molds) for low volume jobs, 3D print- ing becomes a viable and likely manu- facturing alternative.


Structural, Electronic, Biological Applications utilizing 3D print-


ing can be broadly categorized as structural, electronic and biological. 3D printed products in the structural and electronics category are already in the marketplace. The biological/ medical category is in its infancy with a limited number of products available today, but robust research efforts are underway, which should bring more products to market in the next several years.


Structural Applications: include finished goods such as wearable plas- tic undergarments, plastic trinkets and toys, plastic artwork, plastic working models, adhesives and buildings, complex gearing systems.


Electronics consists of printing cir- cuits to form antennas used in mobile devices, tightly integrated electronic circuitry, solder-free electronics and electronic devices using conductive plastic composites.


Biological a.k.a. Bioprinting: in- cludes the printing of human com- patible components such as titanium lower jaw implants, broken/missing bone implant components, artificial ears and noses, printing pigskin cells onto burn wounds, liver replacement using skin cells and so on. Applica- tions in the medical field are unique, innovative and promising.


Additive manufacturing is on The Nation’s Hi-Tech Electronics Publication Subscribe today: www.US-Tech.com


the verge of breaking into a more startling area. Using the techniques of 3D printing, doctors may soon be able to produce soft-tissue implants such as blood vessels. And following on from that could be the ability to build a whole organ, such as a liver or kidney, complete with all its blood vessels. Additive manufacturing could make the transplant list a thing of the past.


The efforts going into biological


3D printing are enormous, ranging from building a framework of cells from stem cells, printing parts for hip replacements and researching "zero rejection" printed kidneys (as it would use the patient’s own cells). An actual ear has been “printed” at Princeton University with electronics within using bovine cells. While not meant for practical usage, the project is exploring methods of combining bi- ological materials with electronics. The technology is already here


enabling our smartphones to be used as a 3D scanner. With this technolo- gy, you are literally able to “copy” an object and send it to a third-party 3D printer for replication. Medical pro- fessionals are currently using a ver- sion of this technology to “create and print sophisticated, full-color, 3D anatomical models from CT scans, MRI scans or any other digital imag- ing and communications data”. The automotive industry has


been using 3D printing for proto- types since the 1990s. Currently some extremely high value, low vol- ume car manufacturers are using 3D printing for plastic components. In turn, this eliminates the need for ma- chine molds traditionally required for parts production. Complex, mov- ing parts can be 3D printed in a process using both structural and sacrificial materials. Complex sys- tems (i.e., gears, treads) can be print- ed as a block and the sacrificial ma- terial is etched away to reveal a func- tioning gear or chain tread systems. In the 3D printing world, in-


stead of patenting an actual product, there may be a need to patent the software or CAD design of the prod- uct. Thus, electronic piracy will be an inevitable hazard to overcome as peo- ple have the potential to steal a de- sign and simply produce or print a product by downloading a file. Intel- lectual property issues will abound, along with data integrity and securi- ty concerns. Hackers could corrupt a design


that may result in latent failures. Depending on the product, a corrup- tion of the design could result in a component failure with minor to cat- astrophic consequences (i.e., a print- ed aircraft engine component). For 3D print service providers,


researchers and hobbyists, the chief hazards are burns since the printer heads are operating around 200°C. Possible inhalation risks and health concerns have been raised over 3D printing, with studies revealing the emission of nano-scale particles. De- pending on the feedstock used, there can be varying degrees of toxicity in-


volved. Contact: OneBeacon Technology


Insurance, 601 Carlson Parkway, Suite 600, Minnetonka, MN 55305 % 952-852-6028 E-mail: ltakata@onebeacontech.com Web: www.onebeacontech.com r


August, 2014


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