3D printing is the technology used to manufacture objects automatically, using equipment similar to traditional printers. With the simultaneous development of 3D printing and its use by consumers and industries, the advantages of 3D printing in construction, architecture, design, manufacturing, and other areas were realized. And it is known that with continuous advances in additive manufacturing technology and 3D printable materials, especially the new metal alloys, they will contribute to greater growth.
3D printing appeared in 1981 when Hideo Kodama invented one of the first rapid prototyping machines that created parts layer by layer, using a resin that can be polymerized by UV light.
In 1986, Chuck Hull, an American physicist from the state of California, created the first patent for stereolithography (SLA), a pioneering 3D printing technology. Chuck Hull is considered the inventor of 3D printing because he created and marketed SLA and the .stl format (the most common file type used in 3D printing).
In 1988, Carl Deckard, a student at the University of Texas, licensed selective laser sintering (SLS) technology—another type of 3D printing that uses a laser to synthesize powdered material into solid structures. Shortly thereafter, in 1989, Scott Crump patented fused deposition modeling (FDM) — also known as fused filament manufacturing (FFF) — and founded Stratasys, one of the leading players in the 3D printing industry to this day. That same year, the Hull company, 3D Systems Corporation, launched the SLA-1 3D printer.
The great innovation was the manufacture of pieces or parts of plastic parts to be made quickly, since the traditional manufacturing process takes 6 to 8 weeks, and after that the pieces often had to be redone due to manufacturing problems. And with the production of these components in controlled environments and in a much faster way, the 3D printer already demonstrated flexibility and speed.
In the 90s, there was great growth in the 3D printing industry, with the appearance of new companies and new additive manufacturing technologies. But it wasn't until 2006 that the first SLS printer became commercially available.
In 2005, an open source initiative called RepRap Project was created, founded by Adrian Bowyer, and which played a very important role in the evolution of 3D printing.
The objective of the project was to rethink additive manufacturing, starting with FDM/FFF as a low-cost technology capable of self-replication. And the result is a 3D printer called RepRap, which became an inspiration for practically all the low-cost 3D printers developed later. The RepRap 3D printer is made of several plastic parts that can be printed by RepRap itself, which means that any owner of a RepRap can print another 3D printer - so it is “self-replicating” - along with other parts, tools or designs.
On the other hand, the 3D printing technology developed by Carbon3D Inc. allows the continuous creation of objects from a liquid medium instead of being built layer by layer, as they have been since the 90s, which represents a fundamentally new approach to 3D printing. The technology allows ready-to-use products to be made 25 to 100 times faster than other methods. It also creates previously unattainable geometries that open opportunities for innovation, not only in the areas of health and medicine, but also in other major industries such as the automobile and aviation.
Open source makes 3D printing technology accessible to virtually anyone with a computer, and that's why RepRap was named the “most significant 3D printed thing” by 3DPrint.com in 2017.
The success of the RepRap project was a catalyst for the emergence of commercial 3D printers. Many of the patents registered in the 80s related to FDM also entered the public domain in 2006, which caused an even greater increase of 3D printing manufacturers in the market - a notable example is the Makerbot founded in 2009. Makerbot was a great force in bringing 3D printing to the conventional market and opened doors to professional and amateur users, or “creators”. The company sold open-source DIY kits that allowed customers to build their own 3D printers. Its online file repository, Thingiverse, also houses hundreds of thousands of free and/or paid 3D Printing files for download. The website immediately became the largest online 3D printing community in the world.
Since the rise of commercial 3D printers, the industry landscape has changed dramatically. Currently, 3D printers - both desktop and others - are used in industries and in sectors such as aerospace, architecture, manufacturing, automotive, health, construction, among others.
For example, in 2018, the International Space Station printed the first tool in space, using a low-gravity 3D printer. This allowed workers to access the tools they needed at the time for maintenance more quickly, instead of waiting for them to be delivered from the ground.
3D printing technology also allows organizations such as Gerhard Schubert GmbH to transform the way they operate, creating “digital warehouses” of parts and tools that can be printed on demand, both by the manufacturing industries themselves and by their customers.
In addition, manufacturers can make use of an increasing set of 3D printing materials, which allow the creation of parts resistant to heat and chemicals, flame retardant, safe against ESD and made of metal, carbon fiber, fiberglass, and more. In 2015, the Swedish company Cellink launched biotink, a seaweed-based material that can be used to print biological tissues - and potentially, human organs. This is one of the many uses that 3D printing companies believe they can use to revolutionize various sectors, which means that the future of 3D printing has great potential.
The terms 3D printing and additive manufacturing are synonymous with the same process, but there is a general perception that additive manufacturing refers to an industrial environment, and that 3D printing is the term most frequently used by ordinary people and the media. It then remains to clarify that additive manufacturing is any manufacturing technology that uses layered manufacturing processes based on a CAD model, in order to obtain models or prototypes, and even final production parts. This manufacturing process allows the creation of models with very complex geometries, even allowing the construction of assemblies, eliminating the need for manufacturing in individual parts and subsequent assembly, which results in a reduction in difficulty and costs associated with assembly.
Additive manufacturing is an affordable technology that allows the manufacture of small series at reduced costs, something unthinkable with mold injection, for example. The traditional method for obtaining plastic parts has a high cost and is only financially justifiable for large series.
Additive manufacturing allows the production of constant improvements to the products created, without this implying the exchange of tools of great economic value, hence its undeniable utility in the production of prototypes, which is why at the beginning of the life of this technology, many referred to it as “rapid prototyping”.
This technology also has some operational advantages because it is an automatic, safe process and requires little monitoring, and an operator can be responsible for a large number of machines at the same time. It also allows short delivery times for unique and original pieces.
But this technology also has disadvantages such as the slow speed of work, which depending on factors such as the desired precision, the size of the part and the desired level of detail, the construction can vary from several hours to several days. There is also a size limit for the size of the parts to be produced, as there are still not many machines as large as those existing for conventional manufacturing. It is worth noting the still relatively low diversity of materials available, and although this diversity is growing more and more, many of the new materials are owned by companies or require special requirements, and there is still some exclusivity in relation to the machines where they can be used.
There is a certainty regarding the future of 3D printing: ordinary citizens will purchase more 3D printers. This will change the way in which people will purchase goods, placing the means of production in their hands, whether printing prototypes, tools or end-use parts. And this acceleration of technology will also decentralize production as a whole, thus avoiding problems in the supply chain, reducing transportation and shipping costs, and even drastically reducing the time and money spent on the purchase of goods.
The materials used in 3D printing will also continue to evolve. The use of metal in 3D printing will make organizations use 3D printers for the serial production of metal parts, producing them faster and cheaper than ever.
In 2020, 3D printed molds and tools were valued at 5.2 billion dollars, a number that is expected to grow to 21 billion dollars by 2030. And end-use parts will increase about sevenfold, to 19 billion dollars. This growth means an even greater transformation of the manufacturing industry, with organizations increasingly turning to domestic production rather than external production.
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