Aim of the report
Discuss about the Professional Skills For Information Technology for 3D Printing.
As the head of manufacturing organization (medium in size), the author of the report has been tasked to decide if including 3D printing technology in the business prospects of the organization will be beneficial or not. The organization has been present for 10 years now and deals in producing printers and computers for prospective businesses running in Victoria. The organization is planning to expand its business around Australia and in other countries such as United States. The organization is planning to expand its business in the cheapest way possible without the need to build new infrastructures all around the states. The organization is particularly concerned about authentication and security problems that it will be facing due to the expansion schemes. This report is aimed at providing relevant information whether the implementation of the new technology will help to expand the business in an effective and efficient way.
The aim of the report is written as follows:-
- To understand about 3D printing technology
- To understand about the uses of the technology in various industries
- To understand how the technology can be implemented in a manufacturing business and the possible implications of it
- To evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the technology related to the scenario
- To provide recommendations for addressing the issues
The purpose of the report is aimed towards prospective manufacturing companies in Australia who are prepping to incorporate the benefits of 3D printing technology in their manufacturing processes.
3D printing technology refers to the manufacturing process which involves building 3D parts layer by layer from computer aided design data (CAD). The technology is efficient and meaningful as it allows a user to design his or her ideas to its physical form with the help of just a computer and a printer. A digital file is taken in by the printer via a CAD software. The design is then processed by the software and the file is converted into STL file or standard tessellation language fie (converted into shapes such as vertices and triangulated surfaces). Thousands of layers are created from the single STL file and is read by a 3D printer. The printer then reads the 2D file and adds them one on top of another, creating a 3D model (De Wolf, Croes & Beyne, 2018). Every 3D printing technology uses the process of slicing before printing. The layer designing is controlled by project timeline, desired resolution, material and technology. The thinner the layers, the more detailed will be the design.
Over the years, several developments have occurred in the technology of 3D printing. One of the developments is speed printing. Most of the 3D printing technologies use the layering methodology to print designs. As this method was very slow and tedious, the CEO of carbon3D decided to change the entire concept by introducing polymer designing. This technology include creating monolithic designs from a puddle of polymer (Macdonald et al. 2014). This technology is efficient as it more than 100 times faster than traditional 3D printing technology.
Discussion
Another development is the introduction of 3D printed vaccines in 2017. MIT engineers have recently invented a technology that can print 3D vaccines. The technique can offer a number of immunization with the help of one vaccine. As per the researchers, the StampEd Assembly of polymer Layers or SEAL technology can contain multiple vaccines in 3D micro particles. These micro particles can be degraded biologically at specific rates.
The company named SOLS use 3D printing technology to create 3D printed foot orthotics and shoes. The company manufactures shows based on the individual requests of the customers. The company is already making the development of shoes cheaper and easier with this method (Bogue, 2013). Customers can now order their customized shoes from mobile with the development of their new mobile application.
A company known as Nano Dimension offers the 3D printer known as Dragonfly 2020. The company is invested in manufacturing nanotechnology with the help of nanotech inks. They normally manufacture for small scale designers and involve circuitry designing (Alifui-Segbaya et al., 2017). The company has invested in developing circuit board which are professionally layered allowing the circuit designers to save time in developing more innovative technologies.
3D printed technology has been efficiently used by the airline company, Boeing. Boeing has invested in creating several commercial as well as military planes with the help of 20000 printers which are capable of printing in 3D. More than 30 parts are created with the help of this technology in 787 Dreamliner (Bogue, 2013). The printing technology has been used to create hinges, doors as well as air ducts. The company uses the Stratasys 3D printers and has also invested in aerospace.
In the medical scenario, Luxexcel uses 3D technology to create ophthalmic lenses. The company makes the lenses from its own patented technology which allows the company to make individual lenses depending on the individual eyes. The company also develops passive foils, occupational lenses and coated lenses (Lee et al. 2014).
FicTiv has revolutionised the 3d printing scenario by offering other companies the opportunity to print their own 3d designs but with a delivery time of 24 hour. The client has to upload the CAD file and choose the manufacturing process. The company has worked with renowned companies such as Whistle, Synapse and Williams-Sonoma.
3D printing technology is used in manufacturing extensively. It is used in transportation business for making casting moulds with the help of 3D sand printer. The time to create a single mould is normally six month but this technology can be utilized to make it in less than a week. It is used to create prototypes for development purposes. Turbine blade mould can be made reducing the cost of developing it by 50%. Dishwater components, housing compressor with temperature sensor, heat exchangers and ATP engines can be made for manufacturing industries with the help of 3d printing (Perritano, 2017).
Definition of 3D technology
In the medical industries, 3D printing has been used to create printed bone structures. It has been used extensively for modelling defects in foetuses, hearing aids and prosthetics. Even stethoscopes has been manufactured with the help of this technology (O’Neill & Williams, 2018). Cells can be bio printed and specific drugs can be printed according to the requirement of the patients. It has a wide application in the field of dentistry as well.
The technology of Nano Dimensions can be taken into the business operations of the organization. The company uses Nano inks to make small and circuit board prototypes. The printer makes use of a deposition method that makes use of an inkjet like material. The technology uses a curing system which is heat based to create the PCB boards. Manufacturing and developing PCBs are extremely expensive. Investing in this technology can allow the organization to save costs (Chua & Leong, 2014). It will also allow the organization to save on the transportation charges of the PCBs as the printers will be individually located in the mentioned company. A dielectric material is used for insulation at first and then he Nano ink which is silver based is put on top of the circuit.
The second application that the organization can benefit from adopting the 3D printing technology due to its efficiency. To cut back on the development of computers and printers, the organization can invest on this technology to allow the technical team to make standardized boards and rethink their geometry, factor and form as they wish it to be for experimentation.
The third application of this technology for the proposed organization is in the creation of small scale prototypes and models. For the production of computer and printer parts, continuous innovation is required to put the hardware in different models of the products. Manufacturers can use this technology to research and develop prototype models that suits the needs of the customer best. The team can then join and discuss whether the implemented prototype is safe for manufacturing or if they can further improve on the model. The cost of outsourcing the entire researching process is saved with the implementation of the technology in the respective organization.
The potential advantages of adopting the applications in the given organization’s business processes cannot be ignored. Due to this technology, it has opened up new areas for prospective companies to utilize several features such as product testing, reduction of cost, customization and quicker designing of products. For rapid customizations in the electronic parts of the organization, this technology can come in handy.
Developments in the Field
The second advantage of the mentioned applications is the one step manufacturing process at an affordable cost. This process reduces the dependability of several other manufacturing processes as it can make the design of the product in a single step (Barnatt, 2014). The product is designed as soon as the CAD design is uploaded in the printer.
The third advantage of the mentioned applications in manufacturing computers and printers for the organisation is the ease of access that the technology offers. Unlike several staffs who are related to different areas of manufacturing of a particular product, accessing a 3D printer requires a small number of staffs to maintain and use it. This easy accessibility of the designers have resulted in the increase of sales of 3D printers since 2011 (Pîrjan & Petrosanu, 2013). The learning curve of using this technology is relatively low compared to other manufacturing processes.
The fourth advantage of using this technology for creating computers and printer parts is that using of 3D printing technology generates minimum or no waste at all which is impossible to generate through traditional methods of producing electronics. Most printing technology use raw materials that can be recycled or reused easily generating very little waste. This helps the company to reduce its carbon footprint and contribute to the environment positively.
The organization building computers and printers can apply 3D printing technology in all of the applications that are mentioned in the report but it has its added set of disadvantages. Many steps of traditional manufacturing are eliminated because of the process of 43D printing by allowing the manufacturing of complex electronic parts (Budmen & Rotolo, 2013). This has resulted in the slowdown of certain other technological innovations such as tool development and rapid prototyping.
The second disadvantage of the mentioned applications of 3D technology for efficiency is that sometimes 3D printing technology may not be apt for a particular product development. The environmental, societal, political and economic impacts of this technology are still widely explored and a basic impact of using these technology is still not developed yet (Canessa et al. 2013). The usage of this technology for efficiency can have other indirect effects such as wastage of valuable resources and promoting hazardous complications.
The third disadvantage of using this technology is its high consumption of energy. Some 3D printers use more than 100 times the energy used for making injection moulding rather than melting materials with lasers or heat. Making electronics from this technology is only efficient when the batch of electronics is used for a small batch rather than an entire organization. The final impact of using this technology in the given company can be high consumption of energy which may have a negative impact on the business processes of the organization (Moon et al. 2014).
Different types of applications that use 3D Printing Technology
The fourth disadvantage of using this technology for the mentioned organization is that utilizing this technology is expensive. The initial investment of using this technology is normally high and the basic investment starts form millions of dollars (Lee et al. 2014). The material that are utilized for this technology are hard to manufacture and uses a lot of resources for maintenance.
For creating the electronic parts for the mentioned organization, a special ink which is silver based is used in the manufacturing process. Other similar materials are also used which are very rare and limited in quantity. Some companies replace the materials with other easily available cheaper materials but the results are often not conclusive (Espalin et al. 2014). Moreover, some materials like the silver based ink used in electronics are still under development and usage of exotic materials in the printing process are yet to be commercialized.
The ethical point of view of the applications of the technology is related to the enormous funding that a project gets for research and development. In the manufacturing process of computer and printer parts, several prototype model projects are made that needs a proper funding to show its benefits. The funding is generally given be a third party exclusive of the knowledge of the project that they are funding (King & Kelly, 2017). This leads in the rise of an ethical question about the technology that how can one judge which project needs funding over the other project and how does they justify which project is more important than the other.
The social point of view of using this applications in the manufacturing process of the mentioned organization is that usage of 3D printing technology facilitates the loss of manufacturing jobs (Sheshadri et al., 2015). As 3D printing eliminates the need for subtractive manufacturing, it reduces the time required for creating a prototype or design through traditional manufacturing methods. The result of availing this technology results in a reduction of labor costs. Hence, the manufacturing jobs are reduced. This can have wide social impacts as it can increase level of unemployment, increase in low skill jobs and affect the economic condition of the people.
The legal view of using these applications for creating products for the prospective organization is copyright infringements. One of the main legal problems associated with this technology is counterfeiting. An organization has to have a product blue print to manufacture a product. This can be used to create computer and printer parts by organizations without worrying about the patent violations (Coward, 2015). This violations will become increasingly difficult to detect as 3D printing technology develops and companies will face difficulty in protecting their copyrights which will further affect the manufacturing of unique products.
The current uses in both the manufacturing and medical industries
The first recommendation that the organization can benefit from is by keeping the traditional methods of manufacturing within the company and use 3D printing technology as an additive technology to assist the organization in meeting its manufacturing goals. In this way, the organization can address the social view point of the technology too by helping retain the manufacturing jobs of the working individuals in the organization (Dudek, 2013).
The second recommendation that the organization needs to check is whether they are violating any legal laws by printing electronics with this method. Although research is necessary to justify the use of this technology in creating random prototypes, creation of copyright products may harm the sustainability of the organization in the long run.
The third recommendation for the organization is find a replacement material that has low level of energy consumption and is readily available. The manufacturing of computers and printers with the help of 3D printing completely on a large scale will be extremely expensive for the mentioned organization (King & Kelly, 2017). Instead the organization can put its resources on research and development to find a raw material that is available easily and feasible for manufacturing.
Conclusion
To conclude the report, it can be easily stated that 3D printing can offer a lot of benefits for organizations which are planning to adopt it. Since, the technology is still at its nascent stage and requires a lot of research on its final impacts, manufacturers should strive hard to use it as a complement to traditional processes rather than a total replacement. The potential disadvantages and advantages of implementing this technology in the organizational structure has been discussed. The application of the technology for the organization has been discussed from a legal, ethical and social point of view. Some industries that are using this technology in Australia as well as around the world has been discussed. The current uses of this technology in the field of manufacturing as well as medicines have been highlighted. The unique capabilities of this new technology can be harnessed in creating new products and design unique products that is not yet possible to manufacture effectively with traditional manufacturing methods.
The CEO of the organization should understand that the technology that they are dealing with here is relatively new and might have negative repercussions due to the legal and social viewpoints that the technology is facing. Before thinking about expansion plans, the CEO needs to consider using the technology in limits around the state and consider about full place replacement after the technology is properly evaluated and researched upon. For now, the best possible method for the expansion strategy would be to implement this technology in some branches of the organization around the state and assess its potential impacts. This expansion strategy will benefit the organization in arranging a risk management strategy if the expansion vision does not go as planned.
References
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