WINTER EDITION, 2014
Exact Cut purchased a 3D printer earlier this year because it fits in with our mission to provide parts to customers quickly, correctly, and at a fair price. We have been hard at work, harnessing the capabilities of this revolutionary technology. However, there has been considerable hype recently about 3D printing which makes it sound incredible, which is often misleading. This is the first of three newsletters that discuss our experience with 3D printing. This edition is focused on dispelling some of the myths; the next is about our capabilities, and the third will cover the advantages of 3D printing.
-John Bradley
THE CONCEPT OF 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY
The first question with 3D printing is “What to call it”? The process is born out of inkjet printing technology that would lay down a layer of media (plastic, sand, etc.) and then print adhesive on top of it, bonding the media together. You then fish out your glued part and shake off the un-adhered media. Thus, the name 3D printing was used. Other technologies, like plastic extrusion (what we use), laser sintering, bi-component extrusion, etc. are lumped in with this phrase. The best descriptions I have heard are “additive manufacturing,” and, “direct digital manufacturing,” but I still use the popular term, “3D printing”.
Recently there has been plenty of coverage about printing a gun or a car. There are several You Tube videos about printed guns that you can view. The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) this year featured a car being printed on the show room floor during the show. This printed car was then driven out of the exhibition hall after the show. There are stories about printed dresses, houses, human joints, and shoes (click the pictures for additional articles on these various uses of 3D printing technology). All of these examples are very cool and are great interest stories, but both of these suffer from the basic problems of mass media coverage, “you can print these things, but why would you?” It is less expensive and much safer to purchase these items made by professionals and using other manufacturing techniques and materials, making these very real benefits of 3D printing almost trivial.
On the other hand, printing on the international space station makes sense. The space station is a highly variable, low volume limited inventory space customer with enormous transportation costs. This is the perfect scenario for having a 3D printer and reducing the number of non-critical spare parts that have to be lifted up to the station. We are not talking about printing a space suit, but if you break your comb, or need a cover for a compartment, or a want to replace a worn out door latch, a 3D printer could be a considerable help.
This gets to the main point of this edition, 3D printing may not live up to the hype, but it is a potentially revolutionary development in manufacturing. We have printed proto-types for customers who then made molds from the printed parts. We have made a sample that customers then had made from stainless steel that were laser cut and bent. We have made a cover for a machine that was needed in a hurry for safety reasons. I doubt we will ever print more than 50 parts at a time, but printing allows us to produce a part quickly and this meets certain business needs. Moving forward, we hope our customers will benefit from these new services and look forward to hearing from you in the New Year.
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