DESIGN & PROTOTYPING FEATURE
3D PRINTING: For freedom of design
How can 3D printing benefit the prototyping process? Daniel Cohn from Protolabs explains
A
s a constantly evolving technology and with the benefits it offers to designers
and manufacturers, as well as a huge range of industries, 3D printing is one of the fastest growing manufacturing areas. As a tool-less process, 3D printing is
ideal for producing single prototypes or small quantities and variations of a prototype. Added to this, companies today are under pressure to design products quickly, with time to market crucial for success. As 3D printing has the advantage of extremely short lead times, it is easier to evaluate a design very early in the process and carry out any necessary design iterations in a very quick and effective manner. It also aids design freedom – with 3D
printing, designs can be created that would be impossible with conventional technologies. As an example, it makes a lot of sense to fuse an assembly into one single part to gain both a functional and cost advantage – not only for prototyping. This makes 3D printing a perfect match for value engineering projects and overall design improvements. I am convinced that design engineers are
just beginning to understand the design possibilities coming from 3D printing, and wish that all of us would embrace them faster as the technology has the
capability to be a real game changer.
HOW IS 3D PRINTING TRANSFORMING THE PROTOTYPING PROCESS? With 3D printing, I often think of a ‘What you see/design is what you get’ approach. There is no need to think about whether the design works for tools, or whether it needs to be perfect first time – benefits for design engineers who face high MOQs (minimum order quantities) for conventional technologies. Instead, the design
engineer can easily just order one part or small quantities up front to see if his design is functional or to get feedback from customers regarding the acceptance of a design. The next and, from my point of view,
very important aspect of 3D printing is the vastly increased design possibilities – the ability to incorporate, for instance, internal pipes, cavities or moving parts without a necessary assembly. Nearly every form you can imagine can be printed. With that comes the possibility to incorporate complex multi-part assemblies over a value
Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) can produce functional and durable parts for a broad range of applications
engineering approach into one single printed part. Imagine being able to reduce a complex assembly with around 100 parts into one single printed part. This is not science fiction. There are
already companies, including those in the aerospace sector, which are doing exactly that.
RAPID PROTOTYPING The benefits of rapid prototyping are in line with what 3D printing can offer. It shortens the time between the typical iterative steps which are necessary to finalise a design. With rapid prototyping design engineers get the chance to get their hands in the design process very early and for comparable low costs on their first drafts. This leads into a faster and way more cost- and result-efficient design process, reducing time to market and resulting in a higher success rate during the market introduction.
3D PRINTING TECHNIQUES One of the 3D printing services offered by Protolabs is Multi Jet Fusion.
This is a powder based technology which, compared to the existing SLS- technology, does not use a laser.
In fact HP shook the 3D printing world when introducing this new technology. Instead of using a laser, the
complete powder bed is evenly heated and then injected with a heat conductive liquid and a heat inhibiting liquid for the contours of the part. MJF creates parts with a very high surface quality, comparable lower porosity, isotropic properties, with 80 micron very thin single layers, and a high resolution. The result is very functional and durable parts for a broad range of applications in all areas. In addition to MJF, Protolabs in
Europe offers a broad range of 3D printing techniques as well as different materials to support customers with the proper technology/material combination for their needs. As of today, we are offering Stereolithography (SLA), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and Multi Jet Fusion (MJF). And, we will go live with Polyjet with different materials, and a 3D printed silicone for industrial applications, soon. Beside our 3D printing expertise, we can also support our customers with in-house metal coating, painting and small assemblies of 3D-printed parts. This enables us to cover nearly all the needs for our industrial and end customers – not only in the prototyping sector.
Protolabs
www.protolabs.co.uk DESIGN SOLUTIONS | MAY 2018 31
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