3D Printing can be a household thing in near future. No doubt, you might have heard about 3D Printing more often nowadays. The technology is deemed to be a catalyst for another industrial revolution. The days when 3D printing will be used for mass productions in manufacturing sector may not be far. 3D Printing, which has been in theindustry自从the late 1980s, earlier more popular by the term Additive Printing, is bound to leap beyondmodelling和prototyping application.
图1:Makerbot 3D打印机用于快速原型制作
So What exactly is 3D Printing or Additive Printing? This is an industrial process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. A product designer or engineer creates a 3D Model of a product in CAD software and 3D printers print them layer by layer thereby creating a real three-dimensional object. The whole process from CAD modelling to printing is digital, free-form and computer controlled. This can be a common manufacturing process any soon and real products will be manufactured just by feeding 3D CAD Models to the new generation 3D Printers in the near future.
3D打印如何工作?
At a glance, this technology can mesmerize anybody and one can be left thinking how a real object is created in the air. Before anybody may find it magical, let us reverse engineer this technology a bit.
图2:工作
g 3D打印机
3D Printing is a digital process. The 3D Models of any object in the form of STL (Stereolithography) or OBJ (object) files are digital files created on a CAD software.
The printing is done layer by layer bottom to up on a base where each layer in the form of a digital code is sliced from the STL or OBJ file. Here, each layer is actually a deposition of fabricating material on the base in a digitally defined and computer-controlled manner. The digital code of STL or OBJ file determines where the fabricating material is to be deposited within a layer and in what quantity and proportion. One can imagine each layer as a 2D plane where the adhesive material used for making the object is deposited in a specific quantity at specific points of the two-dimensional plane and gets solidified on instant cooling just like pixels are aggregated to form a 2D image on a digital display.
The complete 3D object is created by printing several layers on the top of one after the other.
The printing is carried out by using additive materials so each layer cements with the successive layer.
Therefore, a layer by layer deposition of additive material in a digitally controlled manner creates a real 3D object.
Since the object is created from a digital file, the shape, size, and design of the object can be controlled offering immense scalability.
If it exists since
the 1980s
,为什么它不是一种常见的工业现象?
The whole concept of 3D printing looks stunning. Of course, it can cut the manufacturing costs of industries supernaturally. From small scale industries to large manufacturing hubs, all should have adopted additive printing and saved a fortune. Still, it is not a common manufacturing process. There are three major reasons behind this.
3D printers are slow! yes, they do create real 3D objects. But still, it takes hours for a 3D printer to fabricate a single prototype or item. The slow operating speeds of current 3D printers restricts their application to modelling and prototyping. A boost in operating speeds of 3D printers in future can open their application in assembly lines of the manufacturing units.
由当前3D打印机创建的原型或对象具有机械缺陷。打印过程不是没有错误的。打印的准确性取决于STL或OBJ文件的准确性以及3D打印机的软件设置。此外,当前的3D打印机确实对材料沉积并在底座上固化的环境的工作温度的控制确实有限。显然,这是将3D打印机部署到制造产品的另一个障碍。
目前,材料选择仅限于塑料,而真实的产品不仅仅是由塑料制成的。用于3D打印的添加材料的创新确实可以扩大技术的应用。目前,仅将塑料用于3D打印,因为只能塑造塑料和类似的合成材料,而对成型环境温度的控制有限。其他材料的熔点过高,或者如果熔点较低,则在沉积基础后需要太多时间来冷却。
图3:3D打印材料
Why Should You Take Interest in 3D Printing?
Figure 4: MakerBot 3D Printer for Rapid Prototyping
3 d打印技术仍广泛用于建模和prototyping of products. If you are looking towards a career in product design and engineering, you must have a keen eye on all changes and innovations, the 3D printing is going on. Despite mechanical errors and slow operating speeds, 3D printing is a great tool for modelling, prototyping and testing real product designs. Large corporate and manufacturers use the technology for modelling of their products, creating new prototypes and real-life testing of these prototypes for their upcoming products. Even if somebody is an independent innovator or technocrat, the technology could be extremely useful to him/her. The cost to have a 3D printer has greatly reduced and one can easily get a low-cost 3D printer for the lab if one is willing to tweak around with mechanical design of some could-be products of the future.
Figure5: Material Extrusion 3D Printing Technology
One can even contribute to the technology by making a 3D printer of his own. Many college students and innovators have successfully strived into making better 3D printers. Likely anybody can also build a futuristic or a hobby 3D printer with an attempt to overcoming current hurdles and limitations of the technology.
There are three major components of the technology –
1. 3D CAD建模
2. Slicing and Printer Settings
3. Physical Printing
Figure6:3D打印的工作方式
如果有人对产品设计和工程感兴趣,那么3D CAD建模和切片是人们应该感兴趣的技术方面。这些是技术的软件方面。可以获得低成本的3D打印机,并开始建模和调整打印机设置以获得设计。CAD建模零件涉及在AutoCAD,Blender或其他任何其他软件中创建3D设计,并将设计保存在STL或OBJ文件中。STL或OBJ文件转换为G代码。G代码是3D打印机可以解释以打印对象的数字代码。此过程称为切片。所有打印机设置也在此阶段确定。用于切片的最常见软件是库拉。另一个好事是Cura是免费的和开源的。因此,任何人都需要从3D打印开始的所有内容都是CAD软件,Cura和3D打印机,可以根据预算购买。
And why not, anybody can also try to make a Do-It-Yourself 3D printer. This is where one will have to step ahead and learn how physical printing is carried out. There is no single way of carrying out 3D printing. A lot of innovators have tried different processes to make a better printer and ventures are still going on. Since, 3D printing has been recognized as a standard process in modelling and prototyping by the industry, in 2010 American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) group “ASTM F42 – Additive Manufacturing” acknowledged seven categories of additive manufacturing.
1. Material Extrusion (This is the most common 3D Printing method)
2. Vat Photopolymerisation
3.粘合剂喷射
4. Powder Bed Fusion
5. Directed Energy Deposition
6. Material Jetting
7. Sheet Lamination
These are the recognized standard methods of 3D Printing. Anybody willing to take up a DIY 3D Printer needs to learn about these recognized standard 3D printing methods. Later, experiment with different fabrication materials can be done. One can try altering the environment factors, temperature controls and other manufacturing factors to come up with a better three-dimensional printing device.
How Far Can You Go with 3D Printing?
Definitely, additive printing may soon find application in regular manufacturing. From medical industry (Bio-Printing is a form of 3D printing used for medicines), automotives and aerospace to civil construction, textiles, defence manufacturing and robotics, 3D printing is currently used in the wide span of industries for pre-testing product or parts designs.
Figure7: 3D Printed Models and Prototypes
Learning and getting hands dirty on a 3D modelling software with an attempt to make out random or carefully thought prototype designs can possibly start a career in Industrial design, Product prototyping or Concept design engineering sectors. Even getting a budget 3D printer may allow to actually test a prototype that may even if never thought, could be a stunning futuristic product. And why not take initiative to build a DIY 3D printer. Maybe the new design become the next big thing of the thriving 3D Printing sector.
Definitely, 3D printing will be the face of next industrial revolution.
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