3D Printing Technology
Discuss about the 3D Printing Technology And Whether Incorporating.
In the mentioned report, the author has discussed about 3D printing technology and whether incorporating the technology will be relevant for the company or not. The organization that is mentioned in the case study deals with the business of cresting printers and computers and has been operating in Australia for over 10 years now. The main objective of the organization is to expand its business services all around the world especially to United States and other parts of Australia. Moreover, the organization plans to do the following in the cheapest way possible without the need for additional expensive infrastructures. Due to the expansion plans, the organization is specifically concerned about the ethical, social and legal aspects of the new technology and its implications on the business process of the company.
The aim of the report is written as follows:-
- To evaluate the technology related to 3D printing process
- To check its various applications in several industries
- To understand the implications of the mentioned technology
- To discuss the pros and cons of the mentioned technology
- To discuss the recommendations to prevent the mentioned issues
The purpose of the report is aimed towards the Australian manufacturing business which are planning to incorporate the advantages of 3D printing technology for expansion purposes and wants to evaluate its implications.
The 3D printing technology involves a CAM device or Computer aided manufacturing device that is used to create three dimensional materials. The technology uses data from a computer just like traditional printing devices, but instead of printing the output on a piece of paper, the printer prints the model in 3D from a custom made raw material. It is also refereed as additive manufacturing where the technology puts 2D layers one after another to model a 3D material. This new technology created the 3d models from scratch so the waste generation in using this technology is also minimal than the subtractive manufacturing process. The technology uses the digital file of the model through a CAD software. It is then converted into a standard tessellation language fie (STL file) which changes the model into geometrical shapes. Just like any other technology, this technology also utilizes the slicing mechanism before the printing process and the final result of the design depends on the material, project timeline and used technology.
In the course of the years, 3D printing technology has seen a number of innovations. One of the recent developments in the field of this technology is speed printing. The layering methodology is used in most of the processes of 3D printing technology. The process tends to be very slow and cumbersome. To address this issue, Carbon3D brought a revolutionizing technology that changes the entire concept of 3D printing by introducing polymer designing (Macdonald et al. 2014). This technology is touted to be over 100 times faster than normal traditional process of 3D printing. The technology includes creating a monolithic design directly from a pool of customized polymer.
Recent Developments
Another recent development that happed in 2017 was the invention of 3D printed vaccines. This has revolutionized the health care sector as this technology has the capability to provod3 multiple vaccinations from a single vaccine. This technology was developed by MITR engineers who used this technology alongside the researchers in StampED (with SEAL technology) to create a 3d micro particle that can contain more than one vaccines inside it. The benefit of using this technology is that the micro particle can be degraded biologically according to certain rates of degradation.
3D printing technology has a number of applications in different fields. For creating customized shoes and orthotics, a company named as SOLS uses 3d printing technology to cater to individual requests of its clients. SOLS has already started manufacturing theses shoes to make cheaper and faster designing of customized shoes (Bogue, 2013). Moreover, customers also have the ability to order their customized shoes with the help of a mobile app.
Another application of 3D printing technology is in circuit designing. A company known as Nano Dimension make use of this technology by using special customized silver based nano inks (Otfinoski, 2016). The company has invested in this circuit designing technology to save the manufacturers a lot of time in develeoping intricate technologies.
Boeing, the airline company uses 3D printing technology extensively to create military and commercial planes. They possess over 20000 printers which are used to create parts for their airplanes such as 787 Dreamliner where over 30 parts of the plane was manufactured with 3D printing. the Stratasys 3D printers is used by the company to create venting ducts, doors hinges and other intricate parts that are difficult and time consuming to manufacture by traditional processes (Bogue, 2013).
In the medical department, 3D printing technology is used to create prosthetics, plastic surgeries, stem cell research and more. The Company known as Luxexcel uses this particular technology to make ophthalmic lenses (Lee et al. 2014). With the use of 3d printing technology, the company has the capability to make customized lenses for each individual requests as well as coated and occupational lenses.
Another company has revolutionised the 3d printing technology by bringing in a delivery timing of 24 hours. The company is known as FicTiv and requires the client the CAD file in their database. After uploading the database, the company manufacturers the design within a timeline of one day and delivers it to the prospective client.
Applications of 3D Printing Technology
The 3d printing technology is used extensively in manufacturing industries nowadays. The technology is used in 3D sand printers to make casting mould that are utilised in the transportation business. Normally, it takes more than six months to create a casting mould. But with this technology the same mould can be created in less than one week. It takes half the manufacturing cost to make turbine blade with 3d printing technology (Perritano, 2017). Other uses of 3d printing in the manufacturing industries include housing compressors, ATP engines, heat exchangers and dishwater components.
In the medical scenario, the 3D printing technology is used in a wide variety of applications. One such major application in this sector is printing bone structure for bone fracture victims. Other applications include prosthetics, plastic moulds and stem cell research. This technology van also be employed to make stethoscopes (Bingheng & Dichen, 2013). Nowadays, medical scientists use 3D printing technology to make special drugs and bio printed cells as per the needs of the patients. Even this technology can be used in the field of dentistry.
In the business process of the organization, the technology employed by Nano dimensions can be included for the betterment of the organizational objectives. To make small circuitry designing which is essential for the organization, silver based Nano inks can be used. To make the PCB boards, the organization can make use of heat based curing system. As the cost of making PCB is very expensive with traditional processes, including the 3D printing technology can enable the company to save a lot of money and time (Chua & Leong, 2014). Due to the individual location of the printers in every parts of the organization, the transportation costs will be minimal. The organisation can make use of a dielectric substance where they can put the Nano ink to make the intricate circuitry.
The second application of this technology in the mentioned organization will be its efficiency and the ability to rethink the designing process. The organization can invest in making standardized boards and experiment on them according to their geometry, form and factor.
Another application of this technology in the mentioned organization is the ability of the organization to make prototype models in a small scale. Innovation is necessary for making parts of a computer. The hardware needs to be put in different models of a computer. The technology can be used by manufacturers to make prototype models that suits the best needs of the clients. This will help the team to discuss together whether the prototype model is free to go the final developmental stage or if improvements are necessary.
Implications for an Australian Organization
The applications of the technology has several advantages as well as disadvantages for the mentioned organisation. The new technology has the capability to be used in several manufacturing applications such as faster product designing, cost reduction, testing of products and advanced customization. It can be also used for rapid customization of certain products.
Another advantage of the application in the mentioned organisation is that the entire manufacturing process can be conducted in a single step with the added benefit of lower cost. This eliminates the need for depending on extra manufacturing process as the entire manufacturing process can be done in one step with the help of 3D printing technology. The technology can be used as soon as the CAD file is uploaded in the printer.
Figure 1: 3D printer in medical application
(Source: Lee et al. 2014)
One more advantage of the technology in the mentioned organization is the ease of accessibility that is offered by the technology in making printers and computers. Unlike the traditional methods of manufacturing, using a 3D printer requires less staff and expertise (Pîrjan & Petrosanu, 2013). This is the reason why the numbers of 3D printers being sold has risen since 2011. Moreover, the learning curve of accessing a 3d printer is very less compared to the other existing technologies.
The last advantage that the mentioned organization will benefit by using this technology is the minimum wastage that will be generated during the manufacturing process. The raw materials that are used in the 3D printing technologies normally do not produce any waste or can be reused which reduces the carbon footprint.
One of the main disadvantages of using this technology in the mentioned organisation is the slowdown of certain innovations such as rapid prototyping as well as tool development (Budmen & Rotolo, 2013). This is because 3d technologies inhibits several step of traditional manufacturing.
The second disadvantage of using this technology is that in several cases, 3d printing is not suitable for certain product development. As the social, political, legal and environmental factors of the technology are still not explored clearly yet and the basic impacts that the technology exhibits are still unknown, it is still unclear if using the technology in several institutions is viable or not (Canessa et al. 2013). Moreover, using the technology may have indirect effects such as los of valuable resources and unnecessary complications.
Too much consumption of energy is another concern that is a major disadvantage for the technology. The printers normally use over 100 times more the energy used by lasers to melt materials. The technology is only viable to use when the batch of electronics is limited in quantity (Moon et al. 2014). If the technology is used in the mentioned company in large quantity, it will generate huge energy consumption which will directly affect the business process of the company.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The next disadvantage of utilising the technology in the mentioned organisation is due to its pricing. Using 3D printing technology is normally expensive and the companies have to invest at least over a million dollars on this technology initially (Lee et al. 2014). Also the raw materials that are used in this technology are not always abundant and the machines need a qualified maintenance crew.
The last disadvantage of using this technology is the limited access to the raw materials that are used for making circuitry designing. The ink that is used in this process is silver based and is not naturally made. Moreover, it is not abundant in supply and the materials that are used to replace the ink do not provide conclusive results (Espalin et al. 2014).
The ethical view of the mentioned applications of 3D printing technology is that several projects receive enormous funding for R&D purposes. For computers and printers, several prototypes needs to be created to show which one is ready for deployment for commercial use. The funding comes from a third party who are generally not aware of the intricate details the project (Miko?ajewska et al. 2014). The ethical issue here that arises is that how can the third party assess which project needs more funding over another and how can they justify their importance over the other.
The social aspect of the technology that arises from its use is that due to the application of 3D printing technology, several processes of the subtractive manufacturing are eliminated (Gebler, Uiterkamp & Visser, 2014). This directly affects the jobs of the people who are working into these manufacturing processes. Although the new technology has the potential to reduce labour costs, it directly leads to the loss of jobs that can socially affect the financial conditions of the people and increase in employment as well as low skilled jobs.
The legal point of view of the application in this 3d printing technology is the copyright infringement that occurs due to its use if it is not carefully observed. To manufacture a certain product with this technology, the organization only requires a blueprint of the design that is put inside the CAD file (Chia & Wu, 2015). The organization can make the required design of the printers and computers without thinking about the patent violations. In the future, the organization can face difficulties from other companies due to the copyright infringement which would affect the business process of the organization.
Conclusion
The first recommendation for the mentioned organization is that the organizational can use the 3D printing technology as an additive technology and use the existing traditional manufacturing processes. In this way, it can address the social aspect of the technology by retaining the jobs of the individuals who work in the subtractive manufacturing process of the organization (Dudek, 2013).
Figure2: 3D printed shoes
(Source: Lee et al. 2014)
The second recommendation for the organization is thorough analysis of the legal laws to check if they are violating nay patent laws or not. This will help to address the legal aspects of the technology. The sustainability of the company can be kept in check if proper step are taken to reduce the number of copyright infringements that can occur due to the 3D printing technology blueprints.
The third recommendation for the organization in incorporating the chosen technology s to find a proper replacement material that can be used in the 3d printing process. Currently, the raw materials that are employed in the printing process are very rare and expensive and the replacement materials are not that good in creating proper final products (O’Neill & Williams, 2018). The organization needs to invest in R&D to find a material that can be feasible for the manufacturing process in a large scale.
Conclusion
To conclude the report, it can be stated that the organization will benefit a lot by incorporating 3D printing technology in its business processes. The CEO of the mentioned organization needs to consider using the new technology alongside the traditional manufacturing process for the benefit of the organization. In the report, the advantages and disadvantages in incorporating the technology in the manufacturing process of the company has been discussed. The report also assesses the current use of the 3D printing technology and discusses it from a social, legal and ethical point of view. The capabilities of the technology in influencing the manufacturing of certain industries in Australia has been discussed and the negative aspects of the technology has been discussed as well.
The CEO of the organization needs to consider the repercussions that the technology might have after implementing the technology. Instead of fully replacing the traditional modes of manufacturing, the CEO needs to consider the social aspect of the technology and use it workforce to carry on the traditional manufacturing process as long as proper research is done to evaluate the effect of 3D printing in manufacturing sector. To expand the business processes of the organization, the CEO needs to incorporate the 3D printing mechanisms in certain sectors of the organization and check the potential impacts it has on the business process of the company Moreover, if the expansion plans go as planned the organization needs to consider a risk management plan to counter the negative effects of the implementation strategy
References
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