FEATURE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING/ 3D PRINTING 3D printing: Changing the face of manufacturing
Rachael Morling interviews Eric Bredin, vice president of marketing, EMEA, for Stratasys, to find out about the benefits, the importance and the future of 3D printing
What is 3D printing? 3D printing is the process by which we create a 3D object from a CAD design file. It is often referred to as additive manufacturing, differentiating it from traditional manufacturing processes where a part is created from a mould or shaped from a block of material. 3D printers make objects by building materials layer by layer, whether that’s by extruding hot thermoplastic through a print head such as our FDM technology, or by jetting down UV-cured liquid resin like our PolyJet technology. There are several other processes, but the common thread is that they produce parts layer by layer.
According to your website, there are two main technologies for 3D printing: FDM systems and Polyjet. What are these and how would a company decide which they should invest in? Both technologies have their respective benefits, however the application you intend to use 3D printing for will determine which method is best for you. FDM (fused deposition modelling) is the technology that Stratasys is built on – invented by our founder Scott Crump in 1989. In an FDM printer, a coil of material is heated and fed through an extrusion nozzle. This moves along the build platform horizontally and vertically, building the object up in thin layers which cool and bind to the layer below. The build plate will move downwards as this process happens, allowing the nozzle to continue building. With FDM you can print stronger and more heat
resistant parts, making them ideal for tooling applications where parts need to withstand heavy loads, or for functional prototyping where a part undergoes testing for tensile loads or chemical resistance. FDM is also driving the adoption of additive manufacturing for final production parts – whether that’s within aircraft cabins, cars or on trains. Key to meeting the stringent certification requirements of each of these industries are high-performance FDM materials, such as Stratasys ULTEM 9085 resin, which is flame, smoke and toxicity (FST) compliant. PolyJet printing is used for more ‘precision’
applications where designers and engineers are looking to produce prototypes that look, feel and function like the final part. It creates a smooth surface and is capable of producing complex geometries. A unique advantage of PolyJet technology compared to any other printing process is the capability to print a part comprising multiple materials and colours all in single print. In fact, we recently launched the J850, which
offers the ability to produce complex parts consisting of multiple materials, such as rigid, flexible, transparent and opaque, and combining
8 NOVEMBER 2019 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS
that with Pantone-validated colour – a first for the 3D printing industry. This enables product designers to produce ultra-realistic prototypes that mimic the final product in record speed, which can have transformational impact in accelerating the design process.
parts to a unique design specification, 3D printing allows them to do this cost-effectively. 3D printing also enables rapid prototyping, giving designers the flexibility to test and refine designs faster than before. A designer can print a part on their 3D printer in just a matter of hours or
Print created using the Stratasys J850 printer
days, compared to the weeks or months it may take using traditional
methods. This enables far more flexibility in the design process and the ability to reiterate designs without
running into long manufacturing lead times.
What types of companies should consider investing in 3D printing? Do you have solutions for large and small organisations? 3D printing has matured to a point where there is a myriad of solutions on the market, depending on an organisation’s size, budget and application requirement. 3D printers range from low-cost desktop printers that offer professional printing capabilities at a lower price, such as our F120, through to industrial- grade solutions for more advanced prototyping and production applications. Whether you’re an SME or a household brand,
generally the more you pay the higher the print reliability and repeatability; and more access to high-performance materials for demanding prototyping, tooling and final part applications.
What industries can benefit? 3D printing can positively impact any industry that has a design process or a manufacturing process – from prototyping to tooling through to final part production. That said, the industries most commonly deploying additive manufacturing are automotive, aerospace, healthcare, dental, mobility, consumer goods and consumer electronics.
How can 3D printing be of benefit to a manufacturer, designer or company? For designers, 3D printing offers the capability to significantly reduce the cost and lead times associated with prototyping. Designers can produce life-like prototypes and iterate designs faster than ever before, enabling them to not only accelerate the design process and time-to-market, but also perfect designs before committing to costly tooling when moving into mass-production. For manufacturers, 3D printing really has
the power to disrupt when it comes to low- volume applications and what we call ‘mass customisation’. With additive manufacturing, it becomes far more cost-effective to create a low number of parts as opposed to using traditional methods that require a tool or mould. If a company has a need to replace just a few hundred tools on their manufacturing floor or wants to print a low volume of custom
How important is 3D printing in the modern world? 3D printing has the power to bolster other industries as they continue to advance technology and research in the 21st century. With the layer-by-layer printing approach
of additive manufacturing, manufacturers are not geometrically constrained by the limitations of tooling and moulding, creating far more freedom when designing a part. This has seen a rise in ‘designing for additive’, where companies are designing parts already with additive manufacturing in mind – essentially designing parts to fully optimise the technology. For example, the structure of a part can be optimised for strength, but with much of the weight removed. This offers huge advantages in industries such as aerospace and automotive, where the lighter the vehicle, the more fuel is saved. In the healthcare industry, the technology can
have a life-changing impact. In hospitals across the globe, surgeons are using ultra-realistic 3D models of a patient’s anatomy prior to surgery to effectively practice the operation in advance. This enables them to identify issues quickly and perfect surgery before a patient reaches the operating table, which improves surgery success rates and reduces the time a patient spends in theatre. Taking the realism of anatomical models to the next level, we recently launched the Stratasys Digital Anatomy 3D Printer, which can produce 3D printed models of patient anatomy that feel and biomechanically respond like human tissue. For medical institutions, this eradicates the need for cadavers for surgical training; and, for and medical device manufacturers, can accelerate clinical validation and bring innovations to market much faster.
Is 3D printing changing the face of manufacturing as we know it and, if so, how? Absolutely. 3D printing offers the ability to overcome many of the limitations of traditional manufacturing processes, especially for low volume production. We’re already seeing supply chains being transformed cross-industry, with manufacturers moving towards decentralised
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