3D printing

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3D printing

3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. The term "3D printing" can refer to a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer control to create a three-dimensional object, with material being added together (such as liquid molecules or powder grains being fused together), typically layer by layer.

The umbrella term additive manufacturing (AM) gained popularity in the 2000s,[5] inspired by the theme of material being added together (in any of various ways). In contrast, the term subtractive manufacturing appeared as a retronym for the large family of machining processes with material removal as their common process. The term 3D printing still referred only to the polymer technologies in most minds, and the term AM was more likely to be used in metalworking and end-use part production contexts than among polymer, inkjet, or stereolithography enthusiasts. Inkjet was the least familiar technology even though it was invented in 1950 and poorly understood because of its complex nature. The earliest inkjets were used as recorders and not printers. As late as the 1970s the term recorder was associated with inkjet. Continuous Inkjet later evolved to On-Demand or Drop-On-Demand Inkjet. Inkjets were single nozzle at the start and now have thousands of nozzles for printing in each pass over a surface.

How Does 3D Printing Work?

It all starts with a 3D model. You can opt to create one from the ground up or download it from a 3D library.

3D Software                                       

There are many different software tools available. From industrial grade to open source. We’ve created an overview on our 3D software page.

We often recommend beginners to start with Tinkercad. Tinkercad is free and works in your browser, you don’t have to install it on your computer. Tinkercad offers beginner lessons and has a built-in feature to export your model as a printable file e.g .STL or .OBJ.

Now that you have a printable file, the next step is to prepare it for your 3D printer. This is called slicing.

Slicing: From printable file to 3D Printer

Slicing basically means slicing up a 3D model into hundreds or thousands of layers and is done with slicing software.

When your file is sliced, it’s ready for your 3D printer. Feeding the file to your printer can be done via USB, SD or Wi-Fi. Your sliced file is now ready to be 3D printed layer by layer.

3D Printing Industry


Adoption of 3D printing has reached critical mass as those who have yet to integrate additive manufacturing somewhere in their supply chain are now part of an ever-shrinking minority. Where 3D printing was only suitable for prototyping and one-off manufacturing in the early stages, it is now rapidly transforming into a production technology.

Most of the current demand for 3D printing is industrial in nature. Acumen Research and Consulting forecasts the global 3D printing market to reach $41 billion by 2026.

As it evolves, 3D printing technology is destined to transform almost every major industry and change the way we live, work, and play in the future.

Benefits of 3D printing:

Geometric complexity at no extra cost

Very low start-up costs

Customization of each and every part

Low-cost prototyping with very quick turnaround

Large range of (speciality) materials

Limitations of 3D printing:

Lower strength & anisotropic material properties

Less cost-competitive at higher volumes

Limited accuracy & tolerances

Post-processing & support removal


References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

https://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/

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