For many years, additive manufacturing has been thought of as a prototyping technology. Many believe that a 3D printed part is useful for a model or a fit check, but when you actually want to manufacture a part, you have to go to other techniques, such as molding or machining.
With today’s 3D modeling, scanning, and printing technology, that isn’t necessarily the case.
One of the challenges facing additive technology is finding applications that take full advantage of its capabilities, without getting mired in its shortfalls. For example, you can’t just unplug a CNC milling machine and plug in a SLS metal printer. The materials, operation time, and surface finish just can’t compete. However, by optimizing an entire production process for additive from start to finish, the technology can deliver real results.
At 3D Systems, an American manufacturer of 3D printers and software, the additive manufacturing production process is thought of holistically, in an end-to-end manufacturing system, from design software to full scale printing to inspection software.
The Additive Production Process
In the design phase, engineers are used to a certain set of conventions for designing parts, such as draft angles for plastics or inside radii for machining. With additive, few of these conventions exist. It can be difficult to design freely for a completely new set of constraints. New software specifically designed for additive may help sidestep some of these design thinking challenges. 3D Systems produces a scan-based design software to scan a part and create a fixture or an additional part in the assembly. Another option is a simulation software to optimize the part for additive manufacturing, such as orientation, supports, and build envelope nesting.
Next, the part is sent to a 3D printer for production either in metal or plastic material. Today, a large range of plastic materials are available, from highly rigid to high temperature resistance plastics. According to 3D Systems, the range of materials rivals that of injection molding. On the metals side, 3D Systems has an open system, allowing users to research and test their own metals and develop a custom material as needed for the 3D Systems machines.
These first two stages, from the design and modeling into printing a tangible part, are where one of the key strengths of additive manufacturing shines: iterative design. With additive manufacturing, the low cost and low lead time of prototypes allows engineers to iterate, improving the design incrementally before finalizing the production part design.
“We utilize a lot of analysis software to apply pressures and forces to our models and they can be changes any way. We can build in any geometry, any orientation you can imagine, produce it overnight, test it, and move forward,” said Chris Schneider, applications engineer at 3D Systems.
Those used to subtractive machining are used to certain ways of thinking: primary axis, turning, etc. Additive disrupts those conventions, as parts are buildable in different orientations, with different structures, new materials and more. Schnieder’s best piece of advice for those looking to get started with additive: “Just try something. The sky’s the limit. We can probably do anything that you can think of, so bring something you think you probably can’t do, and then go one step further.”
For more information about the machines and software mentioned in this video, visit the 3D Systems website.