Evaluation of 3D Printers

It is wise to think about the best tools and processes to finish your design when you want to develop a product prototype. The three primary ways to make prototypes are subtractive manufacturing (CNC machine parts), injection molding (designed to pre-produce prototypes), or additive manufacturing (3D printing). Many companies have embraced 3D printing. Others have plans to introduce technology and replace traditional subtractive manufacturing. As a matter of fact, recent  research  shows that over 70 percent of manufacturers have now adopted 3D printing. Here are ten significant benefits that 3D printing technology provides: Faster Production Easily Accessible Better Quality Tangible Design and product testing Cost-effectiveness Creative designs and customization freedom Unlimited shapes and geometry Can implement assorted Raw material Less waste Risk Reduction As a matter of fact, recent  research  shows that over 70 percent of manufacturer...

3D Printing is an aspiration for many educational institutions.  Currently, 3D printing technology is becoming one of the new key technologies. It enables companies to cut costs, shorten their time-to-market, helps them to produce stronger and lighter parts and improve their efficiency. For that reason, it is important that students understand the technology of the future global economy. In the US and other places, already summer camps have been set up to teach 3D printing techniques over the summer. Children from a young age get to explore the subject of additive manufacturing. 3D printing  works by starting with a digital model in a 3D CAD (Computer-Aided Design) file and then creating a physical three-dimensional object. An object is scanned - or an existing scan of an object is used, which is processed by a piece of software known as a “slicer.” The slicer converts the model into a series of thin, 2-dimensional layers and produces a file with instructions (G-code)...

The beauty of 3D printing is that it’s a simple technology that can be applied to all sorts of fields. It’s lowered the barrier for anyone to design and create and opened up opportunities to streamline processes already in place. The Top 5 applications of 3D Printing are, Education Prototyping Manufacturing Medicine Construction Jewellery Additive manufacturing's earliest applications have been on the  toolroom  end of the manufacturing spectrum. For example,  rapid prototyping  was one of the earliest additive variants, and its mission was to reduce the  lead time  and cost of developing prototypes of new parts and devices,  which was earlier only done with subtractive toolroom methods such as CNC milling and turning, and precision grinding, far more accurate than 3d printing with accuracy down to 0.00005" and creating better quality parts faster, but sometimes too expensive for low accuracy prototype parts

Description Laminated object manufacturing is a rapid prototyping system developed by Helisys Inc. In it, layers of ad hesive-coated paper, plastic, or metal laminates are successively glued together and cut to shape with a knife or laser cutter. Like all 3D-printed objects, models made with a LOM system  start out as CAD files . Before a model is printed, its CAD file must be converted to a format that a 3D printer can understand — usually STL or 3DS. The main components of the system are a feed mechanism that advances a sheet over a build platform, a heated roller to apply pressure to bond the sheet to the layer below, and a laser to cut the outline of the part in each sheet layer. Parts are produced by stacking, bonding, and cutting layers of adhesive-coated sheet material on top of the previous one.  A laser cuts the outline of the part into each layer. After each cut is completed, the platform lowers by a depth equal to the sheet thickness (typically 0.002...

Selective Laser Melting   (SLM) allows the manufacture of functional components with high structural integrity at a low cost and is compatible with various materials, including biocompatible titanium alloys.  Selective laser melting uses a laser to melt successive layers of metallic powder. The laser will heat particles in specified places on a bed of metallic powder until completely melted. The CAD 3D file dictates where melting will occur. Then, the machine will successively add another bed of powder above the melted layer, until the object is completely finished. SLM is a powder bed AM technology in which parts are fabricated layer by layer using the action of a high-energy beam on a powder bed. In this process, the powders are fully melted and solidified. The process is very similar to the SLS process but the energy of the beam is much higher and the process is performed under a controlled atmosphere. SLM is currently very popular for the fabrication of metallic ...

Many Powder Bed Fusion devices also employ a mechanism for applying and smoothing powder simultaneous to an object being fabricated, so that the final item is encased and supported in unused powder. Types of 3D Printing Technology:  Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) Materials:  Thermoplastic powder (Nylon 6, Nylon 11, Nylon 12) Dimensional Accuracy:  ±0.3% (lower limit ±0.3 mm) Common Applications:  Functional parts; Complex ducting (hollow designs); Low run part production Strengths:  Functional parts, good mechanical properties; Complex geometries Weaknesses:  Longer lead times; Higher cost than FFF for functional applications Creating an object with Powder Bed Fusion technology and polymer powder is generally known as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS).  Next, a recoating blade or wiper deposits a very thin layer of the powdered material  typically 0.1 mm thick onto a build platform. A CO2 laser beam then begins to scan the surface...

Looking at Digital Light Processing machines, these types of 3D printing technology are almost the same as SLA. The key difference is that DLP uses a digital light projector to flash a single image of each layer all at once (or multiple flashes for larger parts). Because the projector is a digital screen, the image of each layer is composed of square pixels, resulting in a layer formed from small rectangular blocks called voxels. DLP can achieve faster print times compared to SLA. That’s because an entire layer is exposed all at once, rather than tracing the cross-sectional area with the point of a laser. A DMD is an array of micro-mirrors that control where light is projected and generate the light-pattern on the build surface.

An SLA printer uses mirrors, known as galvanometers or galvos, with one positioned on the X-axis and another on the Y-axis Stereolithography was invented by Chuck Hull in 1986, who filed a patent on the technology and founded the company 3D Systems to commercialize it. These galvos rapidly aim a laser beam across a vat of resin, selectively curing and solidifying a cross-section of the object inside this build area, building it up layer by layer. The disadvantage to these types of 3D printing technology using a point laser is that it can take longer to trace the cross-section of an object when compared to DLP.

Material Extrusion devices are the most commonly available  and the cheapest types of 3D printing technology in the world. You might be familiar with them as Fused Deposition Modeling, or FDM. They are also sometimes referred to as Fused Filament Fabrication, or FFF. The way it works is that a spool of filament is loaded into the 3D printer and fed through to a printer nozzle in the extrusion head. The printer nozzle is heated to a desired temperature, whereupon a motor pushes the filament through the heated nozzle, causing it to melt. The printer then moves the extrusion head along specified coordinates, laying down the molten material onto the build plate where it cools down and solidifies. Once a layer is complete, the printer proceeds to lay down another layer. This process of printing cross-sections is repeated, building layer-upon-layer, until the object is fully formed. Depending on the geometry of the object, it is sometimes necessary to add support structure...

3D printing is an innovative technology that lets you create a physical object from a digital model. It started in the '80s under the name  ‘rapid prototyping’  because this was the purpose of the technology: to prototype faster and cheaper. The reasons there are different types of 3D printers and printing processes are similar to that of the 2D printers we’re so familiar with. It all comes down to the following six considerations: Printer cost Print quality Print speed Printer capability Practicality User expectations Some printers only print text others text and graphics. The technologies and materials used also vary, and the way the machine extrudes ink to paper. 3D printers are even smarter. And like their 2D counterparts, they also offer a range of options including quality, materials, and price. There are various 3D printing methods which were developed to build 3D structures and objects. A number of them are prevalent nowadays, and a few have fa...

The  3D printing  process builds a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design (CAD) model, usually by successively adding material layer by layer, which is why it is also called  additive manufacturing. The  3D printing  process builds a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design (CAD) model, usually by successively adding material layer by layer, which is why it is also called  additive manufacturing. 3D Printers are all starts with a 3D model. You create one yourself or download it from a 3D repository. When creating it yourself you can choose to use a 3D scanner, app, haptic device, code or 3D modeling software. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the object is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object. In 1981  E...