Methodology

Discuss About The Production Distribution Consumption Kansas.

Technology is ever rapidly advancing with each sector bringing on board more sophisticated and unique devices. The manufacturing sector is not left behind either especially when it comes to 3D printing. This paper aims at establishing the future of 3D printing with regard to the rapidly changing technology. Technology is changing in every aspect leading to the introduction of newer and better ways of doing things in the manufacturing industry. As each and every company shifts gears to digital transformation, the manufacturing process is continuously undergoing transformation. Explorations are being made to establish the methods through which 3D printing can be used to promote and augment the traditional methods of manufacturing.

This study is of importance as it would update the stakeholders in the manufacturing industry especially additive manufacturing of what to expect in the new era of 3D printing process. This would serve as a green light on the arrangements they can have in place so as to not to experience challenges with the adoption of this new technology. The arrangements are inclusive of financial, technological and personnel that would ensure smooth transition. As such, the companies will remain competitive and up to date with the quality of the services they deliver.

The main limitation of this research is that it is more of predictive as opposed to realistic. The future of 3D printing may only be predicted following the trends that are being observed currently hence they may not necessarily be depictive of the real future. Another limitation is lack of adequate personnel in 3D printing that have the vast knowledge and experience that would provide a guide on the future of 3D printing.

The study is organized as follows: Methodology/research plan, results of the study, discussion of the results and conclusion/recommendation.

Information on the future of 3D printing in the manufacturing process was gathered mainly through secondary data sources. Secondary data is data that has already been published in various print, audio or audio visual materials. These sources include peer reviewed journals and articles that had content related to or of utmost relevance to the research topic. An appropriate set of criteria will be chosen during the selection of the secondary sources that are to be used in doing findings on the research problem (Blum, 2015). The criteria are important when it comes to increasing the levels of reliability and validity of the research. For this research the criteria would include the date of publication, the credentials of the author, the extent of analyses, the quality of the discussions presented, and the level of contribution to the material to the development of the area of research as well as the reliability of the information source.

Results of the Study

Whereas the reliability of the source of information will be assured upon choosing on only peer reviewed materials, the quality of the discussion and the depth of the analyses are pegged on the amount of work presented by the author and the manner in which such work has been presented (Hornick, 2015). The number of pages an author takes to explain a concept that is related to the research topic would be an indicator of the extent of the contribution and hence depth of analysis in the area of the research.

The date of publication will also be of utmost priority in selection of the secondary sources. Whereas there can be numerous sources of information of the future of 3D printing available from the various information sources, the dates of the publication is fundamental in establishing the reliability (Gilbert, 2015). Sources that were published numerous years ago might have become obsolete and this no longer usable in the contemporary society. For this reason, the materials that will be chosen for data collection will be those published earlier than five years. This will ensure that the information gathered is most relevant and applicable to the current situation and the prevailing circumstances.

Due to their ease of accessibility, secondary data sources facilitate saving of time during data collection. This is mostly evident for the case of finding information from the internet which has led to simplification of the process of secondary data collection (Chua, 2016). Through using various search engines, precise collection of information can be obtained as used as need arises.

Upon sorting the information as per the criteria discussed above, findings will be made from each and every source that has been selected. A maximum of 100 sources will be used to gather the required information. The information collected will be used as the basis of making comparison between the relevance of each of the 100 sources collected. The information will be stored in various data storage devices among them computers to ensure their safety and ease of retrieval when needed for the process of data analysis (Barnatt, 2013).

 This section presents the findings on the future of 3D printing. The findings are as discussed below:

The Future of 3D Printing

It is expected that more material swill be observed as venders are expected to more emphasis on the development of materials in 3D printing. Still, emphasis will be witnessed in the chemistry and delivery of the various materials. It could be a greater availability of materials of higher temperature, materials that are more flexible or even those that are more structural in nature. These new material types will be depictive of the ways in which people are intending to create and make use of the various parts of such materials (Marcovitz, 2016). An example is the invention by MIT and Steelcase companies.

More Materials

These two companies devised an alternative method that can be used in printing the inside of a vat of gel that is used in the suspension of objects as well eliminate the need for support materials. Still, development of yet another 3D oriented gel has been done by researcher at Duke University (Winnan, 2013). The development is used in mimicking a dried human cartilage. These inventions offer just but the tip of the ice berg of what to expect when it comes to the future of 3D printing. As can be observed from the two inventions from different institutions focus is moving to more complicated yet better devices for the additive manufacturing industry.

Figure1: Innovations in 3D printed parts

As a result of increased availability of materials of different shapes and types, it is projected that there will be an increase in the availability of usage of materials designed for manufacturing industries (Hornick, 2015). These manufacturing materials are expected to be more affordable and the companies that are linked to them include Marforged and Desktop Metal. These companies specialize in the deposition of metals alongside a substrate material. The substrate material can be either a wax or any other material that is able to undergo sintering process. It can also be a material that has the properties of an element that can be heated over oven which later eliminates the substrates thereby leading to solidification of the metal (Gilbert, 2015). Up to the moment, the currently existing technologies used in metal 3D printing have turned out to be very expensive. The enhanced accessibility will them permit numerous other companies to be able to explore their options to the fullest of their capacity.

Figure 2: Future development in additive 3D printing

The facilitation of the process of manufacturing in industries such as the automotive and aeroscope sectors has witnessed more applications of 3D printed parts in fixtures, tooling and jigs. These were achieved in the ancient time through a subtractive process that was done from a block of metal (Christopher B. , 2016). It is now  and then will be possible to manufacture things at  highly reduced costs through direct 3D printing for a mold via insert as opposed to machining out as the cast of a hunk of aluminium. Bearing the costly nature of the subtractive process, it is mostly applied in products that have enough volume which can meet the cost implications of that mold. The use of 3D printing in creating molds provide a break that is perceived to be more reasonable that can be termed to be a price point for any run of production. Still, it is expected that 3D printing will find its ways in unexpected uses in businesses among them operations and maintenance repair (Christopher W. , 2015).

More Affordability of Metal Printing

Figure 3: The role of 3D printing in future manufacturing

The use of 3D printing by Align Technology, the company that makes invisible braces, in the disruption of traditional orthodontics is one such amazing development (Blum, 2015). It is possible for an orthodontist to get a 3D san of the human teeth instead of the conventional method in hic a dentist could stuck in the mouth of a patient in order to come up with the model of the teeth. The digital model can then be used in customization of the mouthpieces which is bound to numerous changes throughout the treatment plan as the teeth are displaced from one point to another. This is an ideal illustration of mass customization (Birtchnell, 2016). In this technology, every patient will be given a personalized product based on the initial purchase as well as every time they may need an upgrade.

Figure 4: Mass customization using 3D Printers

Mass customization will remain one of the most attractive places to turn to even as companies continue with the struggle to differentiate their products and services in a bid to prevent them from becoming commodities (Barnatt, 2013). The latest technologies in 3D printing have enable quick delivery of on-time demand products that come in varied colors, materials, sizes and shapes. These materials as well come with optional extras.

What and how printing is done is increasingly being influenced by the design tools that are being used. The printing today is done in such a way that a highly accurate digital B-rep (boundary representation) model is picked from a CAD system and then used in the creation of an STL file (Abell, 2017). This then forms the bridge language that is used for communication to the machines that are used in the process of printing. 3D printers are then used in the recreation of all the facets which frequently require some form of hand finishing so as to achieve the desired final product. The future of 3D printing on the hand points at a possibility of eliminating the middle man. Using such tools as Grab CAD print, it will be possible to print directly from b-rep models to the machines (Blum, 2015). This will see the manufacturers eliminate the step in which faceting of the model is done with STL.

Figure 5: Digital storage and transportation by 3D printing

It is projected that more designers of products will shift focus to a CAD systems that is based on cloud for example Onshape. This is attributed to the advantageous benefits of 3D printing that have been witnessed in rapid prototyping. More manufacturers are observed to be preferring to use full-cloud systems since the process often involve numerous iterations. The designers achieve their desired design by printing a model, exploring the improvements and the iterating once again. This leads to yet another 3D print.

More Applications of 3D-Printed Manufacturing in a Vertical Aspect

Built in versioning of onshape has a major role to play when it comes to 3D printing as it enables quick creation and saving of various versions to explore. It also enables easy merging of the best features from the various models into a brand new one (Kurman, 2013). This complete traceability which allows the design to go back to the first iteration, second iteration, and third iteration and so on instantly and modification of track will promote more creative risks and innovation.

Based on the findings from the as discussed in the results section, it is vivid that the additive printing industry is warming up to yet a very dynamic system following the changes in the technology as witnessed in the various aspects of the industry. These changes come with various advantageous benefits that would see the quality of services as well as the production process in general in such industries generally improve. The expected changes bring with them benefit that are not only attached to the quality of the products but also on the affordability which is of equal consideration (Barnatt, 2013). Better ways of delivering 3D printing products are foreseen in this report in which every sector of the economy is set to benefit.

Conclusion

The future of 3D printing is extensively discussed in this paper in which it has been established from the various secondary data sources that 3D printing is headed to better quality services and products as well as more affordability in the production process. Time saving is equally not left behind as technology completely transforms the additive manufacturing sector. What is left for this report is a wait to see scenario of the unfolding resulting from the technological transformations. Overreliance of secondary data was the main weakness of the study as the information provided by the various authors was not subject to questioning or critics. The study is most applicable in the additive manufacturing industry that main deals with 3D printing.

• Companies by ready for the technological transformations yet to be experienced
• More research be done on the impacts of technological transformations
• Mechanisms are set in place to counter any challenges that may come with the technological transformations.

This report is written by———————————————————————

Telephone: ———————————— Email: ———————————–

Word Count 2250 words Date: ————————————

References

Abell, accounting. (2017). All About 3D Printing. New York: North Star Editions.

Barnatt, C. (2013). 3D Printing: The Next Industrial Revolution. New York: ExplainingTheFuture.com.

Birtchnell, T. (2016). A New Industrial Future?: 3D Printing and the Reconfiguring of Production, Distribution, and Consumption. Kansas: Routledge.

Blum, H. (2015). The Future of 3D Printing to 2025. London: Smithers Pira.

Christopher, B. (2016). 3D Printing: Third Edition. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Christopher, W. (2015). 3D Printing: The Next Technology Gold Rush – Future Factories and How to Capitalize on Distributed Manufacturing. London: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Chua, C. K. (2016). 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing: Principles and ApplicationsFifth Edition of Rapid Prototyping Fivth Edition. New Delhi: World Scientific Publishing Company.

Gilbert, M. (2015). How to Make Money with 3D Printing: Start Your Own 3D Printing Business in Less Than 30 Days. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Hornick, J. (2015). 3D Printing Will Rock the World. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Kurman, M. (2013). Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing. Manchester: John Wiley & Sons.

Lammert, J. (2016). 3D Printing as a Direct Manufacturing Technology? A Scenario Analysis of Potential Future B-to-C Market Constellations. Manchester: GRIN Publishing.

Marcovitz, H. (2016). What Is the Future of 3D Printing? OXford: ReferencePoint Press, Incorporated.

Winnan, C. D. (2013). 3D Printing: The Next Technology Gold Rush – Future Factories and How to Capitalize on Distributed Manufacturing. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.