The 3D Printing Process
Discuss about the 3D Printing Technologies In Rehabilitation.
In the mentioned case study scenario, an analysis has been conducted by the author to assess whether incorporating 3D printing technologies in the business processes of an organization will be beneficial or not. The mentioned organisation in the case study is running its business in Victoria for the past 10 years and produces computers and printers for multiple businesses. The company plans on expanding its business ton other areas of Australia as well as overseas such as United States. The company plans on doing this without the need for extra infrastructures in the cheapest way possible. However, the company is concerned about the authentication and security issues that may arise due to the incorporation of the new technology. Relevant information is provided in the report about the incorporation of the technology in a feasible way.
The aim of the report is written as follows:-
- To evaluate the technology of 3d printing or additive printing technology
- To assess the use of the technology in multiple industries
- To evaluate the implications of the implemented technology
- To evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the technology
- To provide recommendations for the proposed scenario
The purpose of the report is aimed at providing relevant information to the Australian manufacturing companies for incorporating the 3D printing technologies in their business processes and whether the process is feasible or not.
3D printing or additive technology involves creating a 3D structure with the help of a CAD design. The technology involves layering 2D structures on top of another to make a 3D structure. The designer can create efficient designs into its physical structure with the help of a computer and a printer. A printer analyses the design with the help of CAD software. A STL or standard tessellation language file is created by the software which changes the design into vertical and triangular shapes. The printer reads multiple design layers with the help of the STL file. The printer then reads the 2D structures and stacks them one over another to create a 3D structure of the proposed design (Lipson & Kurman, 2013). All the 3D printing technologies that re used nowadays use the slicing process. The final design of the product depends on the material, technology, project timeline and appropriate resolution. The design gets more detailed with the incorporation of more number of thin layers.
Several developments have taken place in the field of 3D printing technology over the years. One such development is speed printing. Normally, the layering technology is used in 3D printing technology to print designs. With the help of polymer designing, the CEO of Carbon 3D change this entire traditional model of 3D printing. This new technology uses a pool of polymer to ‘print’ out monolithic designs (Macdonald et al. 2014). This revolutionary technology is much more efficient than normal 3D printing process and can print 100 times the speed of a normal 3d printing process.
Applications and Developments in 3D Printing Technology
Figure 1: Elastomeric polyurethane (Engineering resin)
(Source: Bandyopadhyay & Bose, 2015)
Another development in this field is the creation of 3D printed vaccines. These 3D printed vaccines can be used to provide more than one vaccinations. This technology was developed in 2017 by StampEd Assembly of polymer Layers where they used 3D printing technology to put multiple vaccines in a single 3D micro particle. The 3D particles has the added benefit of degrading at specific rates biologically.
An organization known as SOLS use 3D printing technology to make customized orthotic and shoes. The organizational makes the shoes from individual requests from customers (Bogue, 2013). Recently, the company made a mobile application that provides the users with the ability to order 3D oriented shoes right from their smart devices.
Another organization known as Nano Dimension provides a 3d printer option that is popularly known as Dragonfly 2020. The printer uses Nano tech inks that are silver based and is focused in using the printer in manufacturing processes. The company plans on using this technology in small scale industries that deal with designing circuitry (Bandyopadhyay & Bose, 2015). The technology utilized by the company provides ample time to designers to create layered circuit boards professionally.
Boeing, the airline organization uses 3D orienting technology for several benefits. The organization has invested in 20000 3D printers to make customized parts for its commercial as well as military planes. This technology was used specifically in creating parts for 787 Dreamliner. The 3D orienting technology was utilized to make hinges air ducts and doors. Moreover, Boeing uses a 3D printer known as Stratasys to research aerospace applications..
In the medical department, an organization known as Luxexcel uses 3D printing technology to make ophthalmic lenses. The company is also invested in making Passive coated foils as well as occupational lenses (Lee et al. 2014).
FicTiv is another organization that has revolutionised the 3D printing technology by providing the designed products within 24 hours. Although the 3D printing technology is patented by them, stilt the company provides the products to other businesses which requires the client to choose the prospective manufacturing process and upload the CAD file accordingly.
The manufacturing industries use 3D printing technologies extensively. For the transportation business, casting moulds are created with the help of 3D sand printers. Normally a single mould takes more than half year to build, but with the help of 3D printing technology the entire process can be completed within a timeline of one week. It is used to make prototypes for developmental purposes. Making turbine blades in manufacturing with the help of 3D printing technologies can bring down the cost of making them by half (Banks, 2013). The manufacturing industries can also make use of 3D printing to make dishwater components, heat exchangers, ATP engines, housing compressors and temperature sensors.
Potential Advantages of 3D Printing Technology
Figure 2: usage of 3D technology for medical applications
(Source: Lee et al. 2014)
In the medical industries, the 3D printing technologies have several applications such as printing artificial bone structures. The 3D printing technologies have been used extensively in foetuses, hearing aids and prosthetics. Stem cell research is a prospective medical application for the technology in the future (Bingheng & Dichen, 2013).The technology is used immensely in dentistry as well as orienting bio drugs according to the specification of the user.
Other medical applications of 3D printing technologies have been applied in surgery for reconstruction of bones. The surgeons can perform the surgery process on a tactile model before implementing the surgery on the actual patient. This helps the patient to get proper health care services. The technology is also used to create specialized devices for patients with rare diseases such as Tracheobronchomalacia. For treating new-borns, bioresorbable trachial splint is created with the help of 3D manufacturing technologies (Park et al., 2015). This technology is also used extensively in medical research as the materials automatically creates porous surface for facilitating Osseo integration. For broken bones, the technology also helps to create printed casts. It is also extensively used nowadays to create organ replicas by replicating the CT scan images of patients and putting layers of plastic and rubber.
The technology that is utilized by Nano Dimensions can be utilized in various business operations in the business. To create specialized circuit board prototypes, the Nano inks that are utilized by Nano dimensions can be utilized in the prospective organization. An inkjet like material is used by the deposition material that is present in the printer. A heat based curing system is used to create the PCB boards. Normally, creating PCB boards is an expensive and time consuming process with traditional processes, but with this new technology, the mentioned organization can save a lot of time and resources (Chua & Leong, 2014). The organization will be able to save a lot in transportation charges as individual printers will be located in different departments of the organization. The PCB creation process involves circuit prototyping where first, a dielectric material is insulated and then a silver based ink is put on top of the board.
The next application of the technology by which the company can benefit is due to the efficiency of the entire process. The technical team of the organization will be able to rethink the standardized board and its geometry with the new application of the technology, thus saving back on time and costs for creating parts for the computers and printers. For experimentation, the team will be able to change the board’s form and factor.
Conclusion
The third application of the mentioned technology in the proposed organization is the creation of small-scale prototypes and models. Constant innovation is essential for placing hardware in several product models. This can be used by technical researchers to create prototype models as per the requirements of the clients. This reduces the possibility of outsourcing the researching process of the technology. For improving the final model, the researchers can work side by side with the developers in this scenario.
The potential advantages due to the inclusion of the 3D printing technology in the mentioned organisation’s manufacturing process will allow it to design and develop products quickly. It will allow them to reduce the cost of the test products as well as customize them as per their requirements.
Figure 3: 3D printing vs Traditional manufacturing of other industry
(Source: Dudek, 2013)
The next advantage that can be used by the organization is in the development of one step manufacturing against the traditional manufacturing process which will significantly reduce the overall cost of the product. This will allow the organisation to depend less on the other side manufacturing processes (Barnatt, 2014).
Figure 4: Number of 3D printers sold worldwide in 2015
(Source: Lee et al. 2014)
Next, the organization will be able to make the parts of the computers and printers efficiently. The 3D printing process requires a small maintenance staff unlike traditional manufacturing processes where each level of manufacturing needs a separate number of staffs. Moreover, the learning curve of the new technology is lower than other manufacturing process which is why the sale of 3D printers in 2011 increases considerably (Pîrjan & Petrosanu, 2013).
Finally, using the 3D manufacturing process will enable the mentioned organisation to produce limited amount of wastage which is impossible with the traditional manufacturing processes. This will reduce the carbon footprint of the mentioned organisation allowing it to increase its sustainability.
The first disadvantage due to the implementation of the 3D printing technology in the mentioned organisation is that it will slow down certain technological innovations like tool development and rapid prototyping as the process eliminates a number of manufacturing processes (Budmen & Rotolo, 2013).
The second disadvantage that the proposed technology has on the mentioned organization is that it might not be suitable in certain development environment as the socio, political and economic impacts of the technology is still unexplored (Canessa et al. 2013). Without properly analysing the effects and implementing the technology can lead to waste of resources and hazardous complications.
The high energy consumption is another disadvantage of the mentioned 3D printing technology. Normally, traditional manufacturing processes use lasers and heat to melt metals. 3D printers normally use 100 times the energy used by traditional manufacturing processes for creating injection moulds (Moon et al. 2014). This technology is not feasible for creating products in large batches.
The last disadvantage of the 3D printing technology is its utilization cost. Organizations need to invest millions of dollars to bring in 3D printing technology (Espalin et al. 2014). This is feasible in the long run but cannot be justifies as it takes a huge amount of resources and requires arrangement of raw materials as well as maintenance crew.
In the present scenario, the ethical point of the mentioned technology is the R&D funding for the projects. A third party who normally does not have any idea of the project provides the funding generally. There lies the ethical question that how can the third parties or anyone judge which projects need more funding than another and how can they acknowledge or justify it.
The social view point of the applications of the 3D printing technology is the job loss that takes place in the manufacturing sector due to the new technology. The 3d printing technology normally helps to reduce the labour cost by eliminating a number of subtractive manufacturing processes (Gebler, Uiterkamp & Visser, 2014). The social viewpoint associated with this is critical as it results in unemployment which financially affects a large number of people.
Copyright infringement is the legal point of view for the application of 3D printing technology. It is hard for any organization to determine if it is violating the copyright law of a particular product as 3D printing is conducted with the help of a blueprint which can be made by anyone (Chia & Wu, 2015). The organization violating the copyright law can face a lot of issues due to the legal problems in the future.
The first recommendation for the mentioned scenario is that the 3D printing technology can be used to assist the conventional manufacturing process of the particular organization. In this way, the organization can prevent the unemployment rate due to the proposed technology and continue manufacturing by making 3D printing technology as an additive technology.
Secondly, the organization needs to make sure whether or not they are violating any copyright law or not. In this way, the organization can maintain its sustainability by addressing the legal aspect of the technology.
Third, the organization needs find a raw material that will make the manufacturing process feasible for the organization in the long run (Barnatt, 2013). The organization needs to put its resources in R&D to find out a raw material which is not costly as well as available easily.
Conclusion
To conclude the report, it can be stated that with 3D printing technology , the organization can get immense benefit in its expansion schemes.3D printing technology is still relatively new compared to other technologies so a lot of research needs to be done to conclusively state that it is viable option for any manufacturing company. In the above report, the pros and cons of the 3D printing technology has been explained in detail. The applications of the technology in different industries has been assessed and explained in detail. The report also discusses the social, political and ethical aspects of the technology and how it can affect the mentioned organization. Considering the above situations, the CEO of the company needs to make sure that the technology is safe to use as it might have some social and legal implication that might deter its expansion schemes. The CEO of the mentioned organization needs to make sure that 3D printing technology is used alongside the conventional technology to address the ethical issues effectively. In the recommendation part of the report, three recommendations have been provided to address the issues so that the organization can effectively continue its expansion scheme of the business.
References
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Park, J. Y., Shim, J. H., Choi, S. A., Jang, J., Kim, M., Lee, S. H., & Cho, D. W. (2015). 3D printing technology to control BMP-2 and VEGF delivery spatially and temporally to promote large-volume bone regeneration. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 3(27), 5415-5425.
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