3D printing industry had a boom in year 2014. It’s still going great as of now, but is it really a future technology for a better and sustainable tomorrow? Is our future safe in 3D printing technology? Can we really develop everything i mean every single item which we use daily?
So first of all for those who doesn’t know what 3D printing actually is, it’s a technology through which we can 3D print CAD (Computer Aided Designs) models in real life by using many types of filament. A filament meant here is a roll of a thermoplastic basically a material which can be heated easily and gets hardened on cooling instantly and provides strength. So if I talk about types of filament then we have 16 different types of it such as:
- ABS Filament
- PLA Filament
- PET Filament
- PETT Filament
- Nylon Filament
- PVA Filament
- Sandstone Filament
- Wood Filament
- Metal Filament
- HIPS Filament
- Magnetic Iron Filament
- Conductive Filament
- Carbon Fibre Filament
- TPE Filament
- Glow in the Dark Filament
- Amphora Filament
So I won’t be going into much detail about these filaments and let’s stick to the point whether 3D printing is really going to be a technology for tomorrow or not?
Just like the two sides of a coin 3D printers also have some advantages as well as some disadvantages. First of all 3D printing is not everyone’s job, 3D printing up to this date requires professionally trained people. It’s not as simple as conventional 2D printers where we give a command and within a few seconds we get a print on a paper. In 3D printing we need to take care a lot of things such as the support points of bed should be levelled, to check nozzle temperature according to the material used, paying attention to printer adjustment and maintenance, properties and nature of filament used, using support over hangings and many more. Then while printing one can face problems like the layer of material is not diffusing properly with each other, quality of parts printed and then cost of pre and post processing.
Well apart from these issues I personally love 3D printing and there are many reasons for it. 3D printing offers you rapid prototyping. There is no limit to 3D print objects that means it requires you to have imagination to print objects i.e. imagination is your limit! 3D printing also provides you faster production of your components than conventional manufacturing including injection moulds and subtractive production. From a prototype to a final product, 3D printing tests ideas and designs quickly. Faster design and prototype production means more time to iterate the prototype and find product market fit before competitors. 3D printing production takes just hours. Conversely, testing ideas and designs with conventional manufacturing methods can take up days, if not several weeks.
3D printing provides better quality products as traditional manufacturing methods can easily result in poor designs, and therefore poor quality prototypes. 3D printing allows the step-by-step assembly of the object, which guarantees enhanced designs and eventually better quality objects. Apart from this it also enables you to customize your product according to your needs and taste; you can even create your own signature products!
However for common people it’s still out of reach. From designing to 3D printing one requires a skilled labour to do that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. First issue comes out to be is the designing part. Trust me it’s not so easy to design even a smallest object in CAD software. If somehow we have a design still we can’t 3D print objects as we do in our 2D printers. Selection of filament is also a very important task and not much variety of filaments are available with us.
Moreover if we talk about its cost then whole 3D printing machine is very costly and above that filament also costs a lot and then it requires a lot of effort to prepare design and 3D print them. Overall it’s very costly and requires a lot of skills. However apart from this 3D printing can contribute towards sustainable and ecofriendly future because some of the filaments used here are completely bio-degradable and are made from solid wastes. Moreover its material is completely re-usable.
So i believe that yes 3D printing a technology for the future but still many more advancements have to be done in this field. Many big players are already there advancing technology and stretching its limit still there is a lot more journey and challenges which we need to tackle. We can even think of living in a 3D printed house somewhere in future!
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