Additive technologies, known as 3D printing, have been around since the late 20th century. century. Namely, the roots of 3D printing were laid by Mr. Charles Hull in 1984. with the invention of a machine for printing objects from CAD files. The machine consisted of four main elements: a tank full of liquid plastic (photopolymer), a platform that lowered into the tank, a UV laser and a computer that controlled the laser and the platform. The process took place in several steps. The first step was to expose a thin layer of photopolymer above the platform, where it would immediately crystallize upon contact with the UV laser. After the first layer was finished, the platform would lower down to reveal a new layer of liquid plastic, upon which the laser would recrystallize the object to be printed and the two parts would be instantly joined.
In those beginnings, 3D printing the simplest objects took a long time. Small rooms operated by small machines would usually be completed between six and twelve hours, depending on the size of the room and the machine. Larger rooms, several meters in size, would take days to produce.
Although 3D printing has been used for a long time, it has only recently become widely available. Various factors have contributed to this – the possibility of using different types of materials, the cheaper cost of printing and the exponential growth of technological advances.
In its beginnings, 3D printing was used to create plastic figurines or prototypes of various products or ideas. Technological progress today makes it possible to create life-sized prostheses, models or electronic products. Considering all this, the greatest potential of 3D printing lies precisely in industry, especially in the medical field.
The term additive technology or additive manufacturing was defined in 2009. as the term under which the ASTM International Committee operates. Several types of additive technologies are used today. As already mentioned, stereolithography is the first process of additive manufacturing of objects layer by layer. Deposition Melting (FDM) is commonly known as 3D printing. The object is created by passing the polymer material through a nozzle where it is heated and layer by layer is laid on the work surface according to the created pattern.
This technology is used in over 40% of devices currently in use. The production of objects by lamination makes the product so that the laser, layer by layer, cuts the laminated material placed on the previously cut layer. Selective laser melting, SLM, is used to make high-density elements. The powder material, with the help of a laser, was brought to the melting point and “glued” to the previous layer. Electron beam melting (EMB) is a method of building an object layer by layer by melting a layer of metal powder with an electron beam.
Additive technologies can be divided into rapid prototyping and rapid tooling, and rapid production that connects the production of prototypes and tools in the production of final products in smaller batches. Rapid prototyping is the name for a set of technologies that allow engineers to create a physical model of a product under development directly from a CAD project, computer-aided design, model without the need for additional work operations. The developed model is fully functional regardless of the complexity of the designed model.
This type of prototyping enables a faster development cycle, the ability to present an unfinished product to potential customers and implement their observations and comments. Rapid tooling is used during production design. In the mass production of products, it is necessary to design tools, such as molds for pressing, casting, injection molding and similar production processes. Tools are made using additive technologies to optimize production and identify and eliminate defects. In addition to the speed of making such tools, they are also significantly cheaper, which reduces costs before production.
According to estimates, the value of additive manufacturing in 2019 in 2010 it was over 9 billion dollars, which is an insignificant part compared to the entire industry, but there is a visible change in the trend in the increasingly changing business environment and the development of new products. Several additive manufacturing and additive manufacturing startup companies have already reached a market value of over $1 billion, and more and more manufacturers of traditional processing equipment are expanding their additive manufacturing lineup. A new branch of industry has also been developed, which deals with the production of materials, powders, liquids, foils that are used in the process of additive manufacturing.
Modern devices have the ability to create very large objects. One of the largest commercial devices that has the ability to work with multiple materials, a combination of plastic, metal and ceramics, at the same time has a working surface of 2000 x 800 x 600 centimeters and a maximum object weight of 250 kilograms. The largest product that has been made is a ship made at the College of Marine Engineering in the United States of America. The painted ship is 7.6 meters long and weighs 2,200 kilograms, and it took 72 hours to paint. The device used to print the ship is used only for research, and has the ability to print workpieces up to 30 meters long, 6.5 meters wide and 3 meters high with a maximum printing amount of 200 kilograms of material per hour.
In general industry, 3D printing has increasing possibilities as today 3D printers work with materials such as titanium, steel, aluminum, iron and copper, and as such represent a major advance in the automotive and aerospace industries. Industries can focus more on the functions of their products because thinking about how the product will fit out of focus can go out of focus. As a result, production is accelerated, production costs are reduced and less waste material is generated (40 to 70 percent) compared to traditional manufacturing methods. For example, the production of one robotic arm using the classic manufacturing method costs US$10,000 and takes an average of 4 weeks. 3D printing produces $600 in 24 hours. Airbus announced that over 1,000 3D printed parts are used in the production of the A350,
In the field of medicine, 3D printing is important for several key reasons. The first reason is the ability to have custom medical devices that are not overpriced. 3D printers can quickly and easily print stents, bandages and even surgical components, virtually at the moment they are needed, ensuring that a medical facility is never without essential supplies. As stated at the beginning of the text, it is possible to create individualized medical items intended for a specific patient. A strong penetration of additive technologies occurs in dentistry, where printers are intensively used in the production of temporary veneers, permanent implants and prostheses.
As of this writing, COVID-19 is still keeping the world on PAUSE. A big problem is the lack of ventilators in hospitals that are overwhelmed with patients, but they are solving this problem by 3D printing ventilator parts. Great engagement, during the pandemic, was shown by various companies and enthusiasts who made their 3D printer capacities available. An example of this is the Pitlane Project where Formula 1 teams teamed up to make respirator parts and the OPEN WORKS COVID-19 project where enthusiasts organized and started making protective visors for medical diatonics, and the project spread around the world.
Prosthetic works are also made faster, simpler and cheaper. Comparison with classic prostheses is almost useless – apart from the mentioned advantages, 3D prostheses can be bionic (prostheses designed by biological engineering methods that are driven by muscles and nerve stimulation) and can be adjusted in size and weight.
Beyond applications in these narrow areas, 3D printing has the potential to change the world we live in on a much wider spectrum. It can be used as a major tool in the global fight against hunger and homelessness. There are already 3D food printers in the world. They would write customized, nutrient-dense foods synthesized in layers from containers of powder and oil purchased at a local grocery store. Such food containers would be easily portable, have a much longer shelf life than conventional foods, and could be made from materials such as protein insects. Recently, a vegetarian vegetable steak with the texture of meat was successfully printed for the first time. The possibilities of using this technology are enormous, from making food with a certain taste to special food that does not contain certain allergens or contains drugs for easier intake.
This would enable space exploration. For example, long-duration space travel takes more than fifteen years. Food that would be in powdered form, meaning that the moisture had been extracted from it, could be stored for more than thirty years, enabling manned interplanetary travel.
In addition to food, there is the possibility of building homes cheaper. There are already 3D printers in China that use 100% of the industrial waste they are given and build houses with that material instead of cement. Such residences are energy efficient, can withstand earthquakes up to magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, and are built with less waste and environmental pollution.
With the advancement of 3D printers and related technology, it is inevitable to wonder what else awaits us in this regard. One possibility is the printing of fully functional organs. Although it sounds like science fiction, technology has already reached the ability to print various types of organic tissue. Various clinical trials are already in an advanced stage. 2019. In 2010, a team of Israeli scientists successfully printed a functional heart specimen the size of a raspberry, with all veins, cells and cells, made of biological material, and an Australian team printed a fully functional ear implant, which was implanted in a patient using stem cells and cartilage cells.
Manufacturers began to use additive technologies in the production of footwear and clothing. One such example is the company Feetz, which produces sneakers completely manufactured using additive technologies. The company uses additive technology to provide the customer with the overall experience of designing a personalized sneaker. First, using a mobile app, the user scans their feet in 3D, to create a CAD model for the sneakers. By using printers that support multiple materials, it is possible to create multi-colored sneakers. In some footwear models, Adidas already uses parts produced by additive technologies, such as the soles of sneakers. Recently, many startup manufacturers have appeared with the desire to produce clothes made by 3D printing.
Although the development of this type of technology seems like an inevitable direction that human society should go, there are problems. The problems are, of course, of an economic nature. The biggest problem will be the protection of intellectual property. With the development of 3D scanning technology, it is becoming easier to perform a very precise scan of desired elements, using readily available devices, which can be used to reverse engineer products. Many companies that have designed certain products that they produce may find themselves in trouble because their trademark will become available to everyone and additionally, much cheaper. One solution is to sell printable CAD files to customers instead of physical products. Although it is still a long way off, the big manufacturers should already start thinking about ways to overcome this problem or face the consequences.
With the spread of popularity and availability of 3D printers, in addition to the benefits for society and education, a serious problem of 3D printed weapons has emerged. CAD and STL open source files of fully functional weapons are readily available on various websites, which are no problem to create using cheap hobbyist 3D printers. The documentation required for printing the most popular model of a functional weapon has been downloaded over 100,000 times. Weapons makers have long used additive manufacturing technologies, mostly to produce tanks and armor, but some have already successfully used devices that can fabricate alloy parts to make weapons control mechanisms. This topic is still not equally regulated by law, and in most countries it is not even regulated.
3D printing is already making a huge difference in the world as we know it, and right now we are not even aware of it. Some of the tech giants are already studying the market like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, IBM and Amazon, and we are aware of how much these companies have changed our lives in the last 10 years. The next step in the use of additive technology is the production of 3D printed electronic elements to speed up and facilitate the production of printed circuits that are now found in a large number of consumer products. Progress is also being made in the area of amateur printers, where efforts are being made to develop the most popular FDM printers with the ability to test metal products.
The development of new materials, such as biomaterials, various alloys and polymer materials, is exciting, which will enable the production of much more complex products. The future of the industry is moving towards hybrid production, which will enable combining and complementing additive and traditional production technologies. In connection with the development of industrial production, highly specialized software solutions are being developed that facilitate and improve the development of new products.
When 3D printing in its full power becomes available to the masses, the next question arises – how will it affect innovation and the overall further development of civilization?