The exciting field of 3D printing has captured the imagination of manufacturers and artists. A natural desire is to realize thoughts and dreams using metal due to their strength, durability and permanence.
3D printing and the field of additive manufacturing (AM) have received a lot of attention due to the introduction of personal 3D printers for the home, multi-million dollar government funding and corporate investments in R&D. The best way to temper the enthusiasm without losing momentum is to offer a balanced view of where the technology is today and where it can be tomorrow.
As manufacturers, how do we react to this opportunity? As a business owner, how can this affect my bottom line or that of my competitors? How mature is the technology of AM of metals and what long-term strategic advantages might it hold?
We have to provide a learning pathway to 3D metal printing of near net shaped, solid free-form objects. That is objects that require little finishing to use and do not rely on design constrained by the limitations of current fabrication methods. Additive manufacturing of metals is the term that broadens the scope to include a wide range of new shapes through a fabrication process that starts with a 3D computer model, incorporates the additive fabrication process, and ends up with a metal part with a never seen combination of functionalities.
It is key for people involved in the R&D process from ideation and design to finishing to learn how the power of computer based solid models and the advent of 3D printing services can enable the maker to create complex metal objects beyond the constraints of conventional metal processing. This implies 12 key steps:
A common misperception is that AM of metals provides the ability to pull the part out of a 3D printer, bolt it up and drive off of fly away with it. This is rarely the case. Unlike plastics, post processing AM deposited metals may include highly specialized equipment and costly post processing operations. Knowledge of these operations is needed to achieve full functional performance of your metal part.
Our dreams need not be constrained by technology, time, space, and money. But their realization is inevitably and heavily influenced by these elements.
Source : Springer Series in Materials Science, 2017
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