LET'S SPEAK 3D PRINTING!
What are the AM advantages?
CHOICE
Because computer models and designs can be transported electronically or shared for download from the Internet, additive manufacturing allows manufacturers to let customers design their own personalized versions of products.
In today's interconnected world, the ability to quickly modify products to appeal to a variety of cultures and climates is significant.
Understanding the Advantages of Additive Manufacturing
SAVINGS
In general, the advantages of Additive Manufacturing can be grouped into the following categories:
+ Personalization
+ Complexity
+ Part Consolidation
+ Sustainability
+ Recycling and planned obsolescence
+ Economies of scale
Additive Manufacturing The Next Industrial Revolution
Personalization
Personalization at the time of fabrication allows additive-manufactured goods to fit each consumer's preferences more closely in terms of form, size, shape, design, or color for example.
Source: www.quertime.com
Complexity
Because all layers of an object are created sequentially, 3D printing makes it possible to create complex internal structures that are impossible to achieve with traditional molded or cast parts.
Structures modeled from nature, mimicking items such as the bones of a bird, can be created with additive-manufacturing techniques to create product capabilities that are impossible to produce in traditional manufacturing. These designs are sometimes referred to as organic.
One day you'll just contact a company that will fabricate the same house and furnishings you had - at the new location.
"Futurism": MIT Can 3D Print a Building in Hours
By allowing strength and flexibility to vary within an object, 3D-printed components can reduce the weight of products and save fuel. One aircraft manufacturer, for example, expects the redesign of its seat-belt buckles to save tens of thousands of gallons of aviation fuel across the lifetime of an aircraft.
Also, by putting materials only where they need to be, additive manufacturing can reduce the amount of materials lost in post-production machining, which conserves both money and resources.
Sustainability
Developing Large Aerospace Parts with Additive Manufacturing
BACK TO 3D PRINTING MANUFACTURING
Instead of endlessly pushing next year's or next season's product lines (such as automobiles, houses, furniture, or clothing), future industries could well focus on retaining investment in fundamental components, adding updates and reclaiming materials for future modifications.
In this future, a minor component of a capital good such as a washing machine fails, a new machine won't need to be fabricated and shipped; the replacement will be created locally and the original returned to functional condition for a fraction of the cost and with minimal environmental impact.
Recycling and planned obsolescence
Jay Leno on 3D scanning and 3D printing from 3D Systems
Additive manufacturing allows individual items to be created for the same per-item cost as multiple items of the same or similar designs. By contrast, traditional mass manufacturing requires the fabrication of huge numbers of identical objects to drop the per-item cost passed along to the consumer.
By placing production in close proximity to consumers, shipping and storing mass-produced goods will no longer be necessary.
It may be possible to repurpose cargo container ships as floating additive-manufacturing centers parked offshore near their consumer base as the world migrates away from traditional mass-manufacturing fabrication centers.
Also, following a natural disaster, such a ship could simply pull up offshore and start recycling bulk debris to repair and replace what was lost to the elements.
Economies of scale
EOS P 500 - 3D printing in a new dimension
