Category: 3D Printing

Origination of 3D-Printing Plastics

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If you have bought a 3D printer, and have printed some of the stuff, then you must know what plastic material you need to work with. Different plastic materials have different characteristics and are utilized for certain products. Hence, it is important to know what kinds of plastics are used in 3D printing.

Types of materials used in 3D printing

Naturally occurring organic plastics have been utilized by humans for thousands of years. The use of synthetic plastics was started in mid of 19th century. Gradually by the mid of 20th century, developments in chemical technologies lead to a new era of plastic materials. Plastics are widely used as 3D printing materials. Here, are some types of materials which lead to the origination of 3D printing plastic:

Photopolymers

These polymers are liquid plastic resin that changes into solid form when exposed to light. This UV-curable resin is made up of three main components: Binders, Monomers and, Photoinitiators which are mostly mixed with additives, chemical agents, colorants and plasticizers.

Thermoplastics

They are not as complex as photopolymers. These plastic polymers become moldable at a certain temperature and harden upon cooling. They can also be remelted as per the requirements. Thermoplastics are used in selective laser sintering and fused deposition modelling. 

Bioplastics

Substituting conventional plastics with bio-based plastics, made from renewable feedstocks, is an excellent way to mitigate the harmful impact of plastics on the environment. Polylactic Acid (PLA), which is a thermoplastics polymer derived from renewable sources and is the most preferred choice of plastic for 3D printing.

Upcoming 3D printing plastic

There are many organizations which are creating 3D printing plastic from renewable sources and are taking measures to keep the environment clean and protected. Many organizations are also focussed on manufacturing machinery for recycling plastic objects to make 3D printing filaments. All in all, 3D printing the future of the digital world, and it is vital to know about the raw materials used in it to ensure that it is environment-friendly.

What’s Cooking: How 3D Design Is Changing the Food Industry

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3D printers have marked their presence in most of the industries. Medicine, Aerospace, and the automotive industry have been using 3D printers to develop high-quality designs that deliver high performance. On the way forward, another industry has now started to adopt the 3D printing technology – The Food Technology.

Chefs and researchers collectively suggest that the 3D print technology can help to make the food production faster, more sustainable, and easier. The technology can develop food that is specific to our diet.

Here, are some of the benefits that the 3D printers can bring about:

Personalized Nutrition

As these printers follow strict digital instructions for printing, they are also capable to develop food which is specific to a particular diet. These printers can develop food for people who require certain levels of nutrition for a specific lifestyle or those who are undergoing some medical condition.

Enhanced Food Productivity

3D printers are best known for printing objects with precision, effectiveness and within a short time. Such a technology is estimated to develop food designs that are most complicated and intricate. Chefs will now be able to perform beautiful food garnishing faster. Also, 3D printers will help to develop multiple food items that look alike, ultimately helping chefs to complete more tasks in limited time.

The Space Mouse Enterprise Kit is another addition to this technology. This two-handed workflow is one of the best ways to create the next intricate food design. The kit is a complete package that helps the chefs to create detailed and accurate food design patterns.

3D Printing on Human Skin to Become Reality

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The Engineering researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a revolutionary process for 3D printing electronic sensory devices that gives robots the ability to feel the environment. The innovation will acts as a significant step for printing electronics on human skin.

Uses of 3D printed Sensors

The lead researcher on the study, Michael McAlpine revealed about the uses of super sensors.

  • Introducing bionic skin on surgical robots gives them the ability to make the surgery easier and precise.
  • These sensors will make it easier for robots to walk and interact with the environment.
  • The innovation will lead to the future sensors that will be printed directly onto the human skin for monitoring their health and protecting soldiers in the field from dangerous chemicals.
  • The sensor devices are so sensitive that it can even detect the pulse of an individual.

Designing and Development of Sensors

McApline and his team created a unique sensing fabric with the help of a 3D printer that they built in the lab. The printer is inscribed with four nozzles, which can print with specialized “inks” that forms as layers of the device. All the layers used in flexible sensors can be set at room temperature. Talking about the conventional 3D printing, the researchers said that using liquid plastic is difficult as it is hot and rigid to use on the skin, however; the flexible 3D printed sensors makes the process easy by expanding up to three times the original size.

Going Beyond the Limitations of Biology

In their next experiment, researchers hope to print such “skin” on the human body. Other advancements will include improvement in laparoscopic surgery and provision of touch sensation for the victims. The people who are suffering from prosthetic limbs can gain the touch sense through the artificial skin. Surprisingly, this breakthrough can completely revolutionize mass production.

According to the lead researcher on the study, there can be the arrival of undiscovered applications because the possibilities of future are endless.

Simulating Is Believing

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The Simulation tools are making it easier for manufacturers to optimize the process, visualize the entire production path from metal cutting simulations and factory-floor imaging. With the latest tools, the toolpath designers and manufacturing engineers will be able to fix things, speeding the simulation and verification of metal cutting process.

Manufacturers are focusing on ongoing trends for spreading the wealth with higher-end simulation tools throughout the design/production chain.

Sharing CAE with the Masses

From all the latest simulation trends, wider adoption of CAE tools such as topology optimizations, finite element analysis has begun to make way towards manufacturing operations, as engineers outside CAE leverage the power of these simulation technologies. The simulation techniques are applied all across the manufacturing process such as assembly simulation, robotics simulations, human simulations, and ergonomics. Correspondingly, the process of simulation helps in earlier detection of a potential problem, which directly leads to faster processing, increasing tool life, and reduced material cost. Though, the democratization of CAE tools can be experienced for structural analysis, composites manufacturing, and others but, is yet to reach its full potential.

Optimized Drilling

Machine expensive corrosion-resistant materials are difficult on drills, to which researchers used fluid flow and structural analysis tools to analyze the coolest fluid distribution and achieve longer tool life. Right from the inclusion of methods to extend the life of drills for the use, a significant amount of heat transported or directing the coolant fluid into small channels. To understand the complex interaction of drill structure, the research team included simulation tools for process optimization by performing fluid-structure interaction analysis. The entire process involved the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and mechanical simulations to modify the cooling process and to improve the tool life by about 50%.

Validating the Digital Factory Drilling

New digital manufacturing simulation tool such as FastSuite Edition 2 enables significant operations, amongst which a few are listed, hereby:

  • It helps manufacturers to design factory layout and optimizing product designs.
  • It validates manufacturing processes in advance and fastening of the same process and optimizing designs.
  • FastSuite also provides user-friendly functions for integrating new and project-specific components in the layout.
  • It uses shared memory to write the simulation data and from which 3D visualization then reads the simulation data.

Therefore, the 3D based simulation software allows validation and visualization of processes and production tasks.

In the end, the involvement of simulation tools can handle customized markets, making of adjustable product structure, and complexity of big orders.

Inside 3D printing in Seoul unveils the New Era of Digital Manufacturing

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Inside 3D printing is one of the largest 3D printing event series worldwide and will take place on June 28-03-2017 in South Korea. The three days event encompasses international conference and an exhibition. The theme of exhibition revolves around “The New Era of Digital Manufacturing”. According to the director general of ministry, financial resources would spend primarily on bio printing, material development, and 3D software.

Preliminary Study on Session

The exhibit category is formed combining 3D scanner, CNC milling machines, metrology, CAD/CAM software, and material highlighting developments in the new era of digital manufacturing. The exhibition is going to witness more than 70 exhibitors from global corporations such as EOS, MakerBot, German Reprap, XYZ Printing, 3D Box, Motion Works, etc.

3D Printing in Digital Manufacturing and Supply Chain

The session will explicitly focus on manufacturing, business, metal, aerospace and automotive industries. For instance, applying 3D printing to manufacturing in aerospace industry to enhance competitiveness and enlarge market share in the global market. Emphasizing on digital manufacturing, it was revealed that enterprise software giant SAP and EOS have made a pact to integrate 3D printing with supply chain processes and build foundation for on-demand manufacturing.

Moreover, the entire session will be exploring the market trend of digital manufacturing and 3D printing foreseeing the future, the community and potential addressable market.