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3D PrintingTechnology Advancement & Prototyping Center (TAPC)

Dhahran Techno Valley (DTV)King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM)

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Outline• What is 3D Printing?• History• 3D printing Industry• Principles of 3D printing• Types of 3D printers• Application of 3D printing• 3D printed objects• Sustainability of 3D Printed Objects• Challenges of 3D printing• Future of 3D printing• Available Facilities at TAPC & KFUPM

3D printing industry

• The worldwide 3D printing industry is expected to grow from $3.07B in revenue in 2013 to $12.8B by 2018, and exceed $21B in worldwide revenue by 2020. As it evolves, 3D printing technology is destined to transform almost every major industry and change the way we live, work, and play in the future.

Medicine & Surgery

Engineering

Entertainment

Architecture

Research and development

Education

Archeology

Rapid Tooling

Applications of 3D printing

Medical industry• Surgical Procedures• Biomedical products• Customized Supports

Aerospace & aviation industries

• NASA• GE Aviation

Automotive industry

• Expectations: 3D printing in the automotive industry will generate a combined $1.1 billion dollars by 2019

Industrial printing

• In the last couple of years the term 3D printing has become more known and the technology has reached a broader public. Still, most people haven’t even heard of the term while the technology has been in use for decades. Especially manufacturers have long used these printers in their design process to create prototypes for traditional manufacturing and research purposes. Using 3D printers for these purposes is called rapid prototyping.

• Why use 3D printers in this process you might ask yourself. Now, fast 3D printers can be bought for tens of thousands of dollars and end up saving the companies many times that amount of money in the prototyping process. For example, Nike uses 3D printers to create multi-colored prototypes of shoes. They used to spend thousands of dollars on a prototype and wait weeks for it. Now, the cost is only in the hundreds of dollars, and changes can be made instantly on the computer and the prototype reprinted on the same day.

• Besides rapid prototyping, 3D printing is also used for rapid manufacturing. Rapid manufacturing is a new method of manufacturing where companies are using 3D printers for short run custom manufacturing. In this way of manufacturing the printed objects are not prototypes but the actual end user product. Here you can expect more availability of personally customized products.

Personal printing

• Personal 3D printing or domestic 3D printing is mainly for hobbyists and enthusiasts and really started growing in 2011. Because of rapid development within this new market printers are getting cheaper and cheaper, with prices typically in the range of $250 – $2,500. This puts 3D printers into more and more hands.• The RepRap open source project really ignited this hobbyist market.

For about a thousand dollars people could buy the RepRap kit and assemble their own desktop 3D printer. Everybody working on the RepRap shares their knowledge so other people can use it and improve it again.

Manufacturing Applications

• Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands and thus undermines economies of scale. It may have as profound an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did....Just as nobody could have predicted the impact of thesteam engine in 1750—or the printing press in 1450, or the transistor in 1950—it is impossible to foresee the long-term impact of 3D printing. But the technology is coming, and it is likely to disrupt every field it touches.

• AM technologies found applications starting in the 1980s in product development, data visualization, rapid prototyping, and specialized manufacturing. Their expansion into production (job production, mass production, and distributed manufacturing) has been under development in the decades since. Industrial production roles within the metalworking industries[69] achieved significant scale for the first time in the early 2010s. Since the start of the 21st century there has been a large growth in the sales of AM machines, and their price has dropped substantially.[70] According to Wohlers Associates, a consultancy, the market for 3D printers and services was worth $2.2 billion worldwide in 2012, up 29% from 2011.[71] There are many applications for AM technologies, including architecture, construction (AEC), industrial design, automotive, aerospace,[72] military, engineering, dental and medical industries, biotech (human tissue replacement), fashion, footwear, jewelry, eyewear, education, geographic information systems, food, and many other fields.

• Additive manufacturing's earliest applications have been on the toolroom end of the manufacturing spectrum. For example, rapid prototyping was one of the earliest additive variants, and its mission was to reduce the lead time and cost of developing prototypes of new parts and devices, which was earlier only done with subtractive toolroom methods (typically slowly and expensively).[73] With technological advances in additive manufacturing, however, and the dissemination of those advances into the business world, additive methods are moving ever further into the production end of manufacturing in creative and sometimes unexpected ways.[73] Parts that were formerly the sole province of subtractive methods can now in some cases be made more profitably via additive ones

Distributed manufacturing

• Additive manufacturing in combination with cloud computing technologies allows decentralized and geographically independent distributed production.[74] Distributed manufacturing as such is carried out by some enterprises; there is also a service to put people needing 3D printing in contact with owners of printers.[75]

• Some companies offer on-line 3D printing services to both commercial and private customers,[76] working from 3D designs uploaded to the company website. 3D-printed designs are either shipped to the customer or picked up from the service provider

Mass customization

• Companies have created services where consumers can customise objects using simplified web based customisation software, and order the resulting items as 3D printed unique objects.[78][79] This now allows consumers to create custom cases for their mobile phones.[80] Nokia has released the 3D designs for its case so that owners can customise their own case and have it 3D printed

Rapid manufacturing

• Advances in RP technology have introduced materials that are appropriate for final manufacture, which has in turn introduced the possibility of directly manufacturing finished components. One advantage of 3D printing for rapid manufacturing lies in the relatively inexpensive production of small numbers of parts.• Rapid manufacturing is a new method of manufacturing and many of its

processes remain unproven. 3D printing is now entering the field of rapid manufacturing and was identified as a "next level" technology by many experts in a 2009 report.[82] One of the most promising processes looks to be the adaptation of selective laser sintering (SLS), or direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) some of the better-established rapid prototyping methods. As of 2006, however, these techniques were still very much in their infancy, with many obstacles to be overcome before RM could be considered a realistic manufacturing method

Rapid prototyping

• Industrial 3D printers have existed since the early 1980s and have been used extensively for rapid prototyping and research purposes. These are generally larger machines that use proprietary powdered metals, casting media (e.g. sand), plastics, paper or cartridges, and are used for rapid prototyping by universities and commercial companies.

Research

• 3D printing can be particularly useful in research labs due to its ability to make specialised, bespoke geometries. In 2012 a proof of principle project at the University of Glasgow, UK, showed that it is possible to use 3D printing techniques to assist in the production of chemical compounds. They first printed chemical reaction vessels, then used the printer to deposit reactants into them.[84] They have produced new compounds to verify the validity of the process, but have not pursued anything with a particular application

Food

• Cornell Creative Machines Lab announced in 2012 that it was possible to produce customised food with 3D Hydrocolloid Printing.[85]

Additative manufacturing of food is currently being developed by squeezing out food, layer by layer, into three-dimensional objects. A large variety of foods are appropriate candidates, such as chocolate and candy, and flat foods such as crackers, pasta,[86] and pizza

Apparel

• 3D printing has spread into the world of clothing with fashion designers experimenting with 3D-printed bikinis, shoes, and dresses.[89] In commercial production Nike is using 3D printing to prototype and manufacture the 2012 Vapor Laser Talon football shoe for players of American football, and New Balance is 3D manufacturing custom-fit shoes for athletes.[89][90]

• 3D printing has come to the point where companies are printing consumer grade eyewear with on demand custom fit and styling (although they cannot print the lenses). On demand customization of glasses is possible with rapid prototyping

Vehicle

• In early 2014, the Swedish supercar manufacturer, Koenigsegg, announced the One:1, a supercar that utilises many components that were 3D printed. In the limited run of vehicles Koenigsegg produces, the One:1 has side-mirror internals, air ducts, titanium exhaust components, and even complete turbocharger assembles that have been 3D printed as part of the manufacturing process.[92]

• Urbee is the name of the first car in the world car mounted using the technology 3D printing (his bodywork and his car windows were "printed"). Created in 2010 through the partnership between the US engineering group Kor Ecologic and the company Stratasys (manufacturer of printers Stratasys 3D), it is a hybrid vehicle with futuristic look.[93][94][95]

• In May 2015 Airbus announced that its new Airbus A350 XWB included over 1000 components manufactured by 3D printing. [1]

• 3D printing is also being utilized by air forces to print spare parts for planes. In 2015, a Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet flew with printed parts. The United States Air Force has begun to work with 3D printers, and the Israeli Air Force has also purchased a 3D printer to print spare parts

Construction

• Until recent years models were built by hand, often taking a long time. Thus, architects are often forced to show their clients drawings of their projects. According to Erik Kinipper, clients usually need to see the product from all possible viewpoints in space to get a clearer picture of the design and make an informed decision. In order to get these scale models to clients in a small amount of time, architects and architecture firms tend to rely on 3D printing.[97] Using 3D printing, these firms can reduce lead times of production by 50 to 80 percent, producing scale models up to 60 percent lighter than the machined part while being sturdy.[98] Thus, the designs and the models are only limited by a person’s imagination.

• The improvements on accuracy, speed and quality of materials in 3D printing technology have opened new doors for it to move beyond the use of 3-D printing in the modeling process and actually move it to manufacturing strategy. A good example is Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis’ research at the University of Southern California which resulted in a 3D printer that can build a house in 24 hours .The process is called Contour Crafting. Khoshnevis, Russell, Kwon, & Bukkapatnam, define contour crafting as an additive manufacturing process which uses computer controlled systems to repeatedly lay down layers of materials such as concrete.[99] Bushey also discussed Khoshnevis's robot which comes equipped with a nozzle that spews out concrete and can build a home based on a set computer pattern. Contour Crafting technology has great potential for automating the construction of whole structures as well as sub-components. Using this process, a single house or a colony of houses, each with possibly a different design, may be automatically constructed in a single run, embedded in each house all the conduits for electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning

Firearms

• In 2012, the US-based group Defense Distributed disclosed plans to "[design] a working plastic gun that could be downloaded and reproduced by anybody with a 3D printer."[100][101] Defense Distributed has also designed a 3D printable AR-15 type rifle lower receiver(capable of lasting more than 650 rounds) and a 30 round M16 magazine The AR-15 has multiple receivers (both an upper and lower receiver), but the legally controlled part is the one that is serialised (the lower, in the AR-15's case). Soon after Defense Distributed succeeded in designing the first working blueprint to produce a plastic gun with a 3D printer in May 2013, the United States Department of State demanded that they remove the instructions from their website.[102] After Defense Distributed released their plans, questions were raised regarding the effects that 3D printing and widespread consumer-level CNC machining[103][104] may have on gun control effectiveness.[105][106][107][108]

• In 2014, a man from Japan became the first person in the world to be imprisoned for making 3D printed firearms.[109] Yoshitomo Imura posted videos and blueprints of the gun online and was sentenced to jail for two years. Police found at least two guns in his household that were capable of firing bullets

Computers and robots

• 3D printing can be used to make laptops and other computers, including cases, as Novena and VIA OpenBook standard laptop cases. I.e. a Novena motherboard can be bought and be used in a printed VIA OpenBook case.[130]

• Open-source robots are built using 3D printers. Double Robotics grant access to their technology (an open SDK).[131][132][133] On the other hand, 3&DBot is an Arduino 3D printer-robot with wheels[134] and ODOI is a 3D printed humanoid robot

Space

• In September 2014, SpaceX delivered the first zero-gravity 3-D printer to the International Space Station (ISS). On December 19, 2014, NASA emailed CAD drawings for a socket wrench to astronauts aboard the ISS, who then printed the tool using its 3-D printer. Applications for space offer the ability to print parts or tools on-site, as opposed to using rockets to bring along pre-manufactured items for space missions to human colonies on the moon, Mars, or elsewhere.[136] The European Space Agency plans to deliver its new Portable On-Board 3D Printer (POP3D for short) to the International Space Station by June 2015, making it the second 3D printer in space.[137][138]

• Furthermore, the Sinterhab project is researching a lunar base constructed by 3D printing using lunar regolith as a base material. Instead of adding a binding agent to the regolith, researchers are experimenting with microwave sintering to create solid blocks from the raw material.[139]

• Similar researches and projects like these could allow faster construction for lower costs, and has been investigated for construction of off-Earth habitats

3D PRINTED OBJECTS

• From prosthetic hands to an entire bridge, you can pretty much 3D print anything you can imagine. But the materials to make them are diversifying a bit more slowly. Now researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have found a way to 3D print objects from cellulose, a naturally occurring string of molecules derived from wood. The resulting objects are an environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative to the metals and plastics that currently dominate 3D printing. The researchers presented their work this week at a conference titled “New Materials From Trees.”

• We’re used to seeing objects and constructions made of wood, but it hasn’t been easy to put it in a form that can be 3D printed. Unlike the metal or plastic commonly used in 3D printing, cellulose doesn’t melt when heated, which means it’s much harder to mold into different objects. To work around this, the researchers mixed tiny fibers of cellulose in a liquid gel made of water. The researchers tested their mixture on a 3D bioprinter, which had been used previously to make scaffolds where cells grew before being implanted in a patient.

• Once the object has been printed from the gel, it has to dry, which is critical for maintaining its final shape. The researchers figured out a way to freeze the object, then slowly remove some of the water so that the final product is in the desired shape.

• The researchers were also able to insert carbon nanotubes into the dry object so that it could conduct electricity. When they tested one conductive gel with the nanotubes and one without, they were able to create a 3D electrical circuit.

• Found in the cell walls of plants and algae or secreted by bacteria, cellulose is a very abundant polymer. 3D printed objects made of cellulose would biodegradable and could even capture carbon dioxide that would otherwise pollute the atmosphere.

• Paul Gatenholm, a professor of biopolymer technology at Chalmers and one of the study authors, envisions a huge range of applications for products printed with cellulose. "Potential applications range from sensors integrated with packaging, to textiles that convert body heat to electricity, and wound dressings that can communicate with healthcare workers," he says. In the future his team plans to experiment with other organic compounds derived from wood.

Sustainability of 3d printing

• Ever since it became widely accessible to the general public, 3D printing has been celebrated for its ability to localize production and minimize waste. But what about environmental factors — what are the challenges 3D printing faces when it comes to sustainability?

• The majority of raw materials used in 3D printing are plastics, the most common ones being Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and Polylactic Acid (PLA). The reason these work so well is that they become soft and moldable when heated and return to a solid state when cooled. Although it is considered a low-risk material, ABS plastic is far from sustainable and can produce carcinogenic fumes when heated up. PLA is a polymer derived from sugar, and can actually be made from plants. Those compostable plates, forks and cups that you’ve probably encountered at the health food store, for example, are made from corn-derived PLA. If grown using sustainable agriculture methods, PLA could actually be quite sustainable.

• Unless they are mixed with other materials, these kinds of thermoplastics can actually be reused by melting them down. In theory, you should be able to simply put an object you’ve already made back into the 3D printer and reshape it into something else. Recycling this close to home would be much more efficient than relying on our existing curbside recycling system, which has a low rate of recovery for plastics.

• Of course, this is not quite reality yet, but EKOCYCLE and 3D Systems is making a 3D printer that works with a groundbreaking printer filament made in part from post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. EKOCYCLE is a collaboration between multi-faceted entertainer and creative innovator will.i.am and The Coca-Cola Company, aiming to “promote sustainability through aspirational, yet attainable lifestyle products made in part from recycled material.”

• “The EKOCYCLE Cube takes 3D printing to the next level, giving people all over the world the ability to transform discarded waste into useful, functional and fashionable objects,” says will.i.am., calling it “the beginning of a more sustainable 3D-printed lifestyle.”

• The EKOCYCLE Cube printer retails for $1,199 and prints with a flexible filament material called rPET, made partially from post-consumer recycled 20oz PET plastic bottles. This being an initiative led by Coke, the “curated color palette” is somewhat limited, allowing you to print only in red, black, white and natural.

• Many different actorsin the 3D printing space are starting to look at plastic as a commodity instead of something that goes straight to landfill after reaching the end of its useful life. Besides the environmental incentive, there’s an enormous economic opportunity here as well. Vancouver-based organization The Plastic Bank uses a model called Social Plastic to demonstrate and advocate the use of recycled plastic as commodity. Their 3D Printing from Ocean Plastic pilot project utilizes plastic waste from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to create a 3D printed wrench — made entirely from ocean plastic collected along the southern Alaskan coastline.

• An Atlanta-based startup called Electroloom is developing a 3D printer that can actually print fabric — creating on-demand, custom apparel. The technology is still in development, and the company hopes to launch at the end of this year. So far, Electroloom has successfully been able to print simple shapes using synthetic fibers, but are experimenting with natural fibers and blends.

• New York-based company Shapeways is a 3D printing marketplace and community, offering designers access to cutting edge industrial 3D printing technology, capable of manufacturing products a wide range of high-quality materials, including steel, brass, bronze, silver, gold and platinum. All these metals are infinitely recyclable, making them highly sustainable choices.

• One of the main benefits of 3D printing is that it is an additive manufacturing process, meaning that objects are created by adding one layer of material upon another until the desired form is achieved. This creates less waste than subtractive manufacturing processes, such as CNC milling or woodturning, which uses a block of material and removes excess until the final shape remains.

• Just like with regular manufacturing, sustainability is not only about the materials. We also need to look at how we use the technology. According to a study done at UC Berkeley’s mechanical engineering department, energy-use is responsible for the largest part of 3D printing’s environmental impact. Suggestions for how we can lessen that impact include printing hollow objects whenever possible, orienting them to optimize efficiency, and printing several parts or objects at one time.

• We’ve only just begun to discover the possibilities of 3D printing, and as innovation continues, we will surely see more new and innovative methods for increasing sustainability come to the market — enabling us to print everything from cars and clothing to food and human organs while being mindful of the impact on the Earth.

Challenges of 3d printing

• 3-D printing offers tremendous opportunities, but it also brings a few challenges. I recently wrote about opportunities in 3-D printing; here’s my take on challenges. (Disclosure: my client Stratasysmakes 3-D printers and provides manufacturing services using the technology.)

• Cost of 3-D printing. We may never see additive technology substitute for, say, injection molding for large production runs. However, even for the small production runs that are currently the technology’s sweet spot, users have some issues to consider.

• More choice is sometimes uncomfortable. Mass customization was one of the opportunities that I mentioned earlier, but some consumers are overwhelmed by too many choices. Facing 200 different styles of sneakers, I may decide to stick with flip-flops. The best practice in many cases will be to offer a limited menu of choices, plus access to a far greater selection for those so inclined.

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• User changes can be dangerous. 3-D printing allows users, in many cases, to take a company’s design, tweak it, and print out the modified part. Someday, a guy is going to modify a design in a way that weakens the product. Then he’ll install it on the ceiling of his garage, hang a heavy object, and put his head underneath. You know it will happen. You just don’t know whether his wife will first call 911 or a lawyer. Note that many machines have scanners now, so the user doesn’t even have to access the design file to commit this mistake

• Energy usage in some applications is high. In others, it may be low.• Some 3-D designs don’t scale. Many companies would like to design a product, use 3-D manufacturing

to test the market, then switch over to traditional manufacturing to keep costs down. However, the optimum design for 3-D printing is not always the optimum design for traditional manufacturing, and vice versa. Sometimes one design is a good alternative to the other, but there are cases where the 3-D design just wouldn’t work in traditional manufacturing. Design is typically a smaller cost compared to tooling, but manufacturing leaders should consider this issue early on

• These challenges are real, but not overwhelming. As 3-D printers become better understood, their use will become far more widespread. Their cost will also continue to decline, their functionality improve, leading to a large increase in usage.

Obstacles

• In reality, however, the incoming industrial era, called the “makers revolution” by its prophet Chris Anderson is running headlong into several obstacles. Apart from very high level machines, costing several million dollars each, 3D printing tends to produce items that are less ‘resistant’ than classic moulded parts. Layer by layer build-up leads to a structural weakness in the 3rd (vertical) dimension This material drawback affects state-of-the-art processes such as selective laser sintering using polyetherketoneketone (PTKK). The surface quality is rougher. The required safety standards do not comply with normal standards in the more advanced countries. The thermoplastic polymer ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and PLA (polylactic acid) cool rapidly but more sophisticated materials such as resins or powders can lead to local workshop pollution

• Another setback is that you cannot benefit from economy of scale. And of course the ‘time to produce’ will depend on the number of layers to be printed, and this can last for hours, or even days. Admittedly this is in order and acceptable for prototyping but not for ‘mass-production’ or rather small series. Speed of printing will remain very dependent on the speed at which the printer-head can extrude the raw material used. This is due, in part, to the required purity and homogeneity of the product but again these high prices reflect the fact that the 3D printer makers force the buyers to purchase their proprietary raw materials, sold with high profit margins – just as is the case for inkjet printer cartridges.

• Lastly, 3D printing can lead to legal risks. If, for example, a safety helmet manufacturer sell the CAD file and a helmet produced in 3D printing reveals a flaw following an accident, who is responsible – is it the original model manufacturer, or the printer manufacturer? Risks such as these may lead to editors and manufacturers to exercising a degree of caution and this in turn would ‘slow down’ private individuals from launching micro-fabrication operations. The industrial protocols known as quality control are difficult to imagine in private micro-production of goods.

• The prospect of seeing 3D printing moving away from the prototyping world to join the machines in mass production is something that worries those whose jobs relate to intellectual property rights. It is now quite possible to purchase an object, 3D scan it and then print it as many times as needed to satisfy a local market demand. These would be nigh-perfect copies, of course. The proprietary company could try to protect their trademarks. There are ways and means to authentify the products, for example by implanting specific ID circuits, or by taking special protective measures at the level of the 3D design files.

• But the danger of copies exists and physical manufacturing might have to face and suffer from the same difficulties as the music, film and AB worlds. The figures as they stand are awesome: The influential technology assessment agency Gartner forecasts that in 2018 the per annum loss in terms of property rights due to 3D printing will be no less than 100 billion dollars!