3D Printing 

In this article we will talk about 3D Printing. If you want to know know about What is 3D printing ,History of 3D printing ,Principle of 3D printing and many more then this article gonna help you alot. 

3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file.The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processe in which an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the object is created.3D printing is the opposite of subtractive manufacturing which is cutting out / hollowing out a 

piece of metal or plastic with for instance a milling machine.3D printing enables you to produce complex shapes using less material than traditional 

manufacturing methods.

3D Printing Limitations-

1. Surface texture is generally too rough.

2.Materials generally have low strengths.

3. Material prices are too high.

4. Parts are generally not so dense.

5. Color is only possible with Mcor and Zcorp and these do not provide for functional parts.

6. The software tool-chain is too complex.

7. It is difficult to make 3D model.

8. Manufacturing complex parts or organic parts needs a lot of 3D modeling training.

9. 3D scanners are not good enough and create holes in final files.

10. Printers are not large enough.

11. Printers are not fast enough.

12. Build quality and up-time on desktop systems is terrible.

13. Machines are too expensive.

14. Very little R&D is done in 3D printing.

15. There is too much manual labor in manufacturing with 3D printing, 30% of costs.

3D Printing Advantages-

 It Is Affordable.

 Rapid Prototyping.

 Strong and Lightweight Parts.

 3D Printing Technology Is Environmentally Friendly.

 Easy to Access.

 Fast Design and Production.

 Reduced Waste.

 Print on Demand.

 Flexible Design.

History of 3D Printing-

1. The earliest record of 3D printing through the additive process was the Japanese inventor Hideo Kodama in 1981. He created a product that used ultraviolet lights to harden polymers and create solid objects.This is a stepping stone to stereolithography (SLA).

2. Charles Hull invented stereolithography, a process similar to 3D printing that uses technology to create smaller versions of objects so they can be tested before spending time and money on creating the actual product. The object is printed layer by layer, rinsed with a solvent, and hardened with an ultraviolet light. The process uses computer-aided designs (CAD) to create the 3D models.

3. Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is another, more advanced, form of 3D printing. It uses additive manufacturing and a powder polymer—typically nylon—to create objects. SLS uses a laser to fuse the powder together, layer by layer, into more complex shapes than SLA is capable of creating.

4. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), developed by Scott Crump, is the most common form of 3D printing today. It is known as the “desktop 3D printers” because it is the most commonly used form of the technology. To form an object, the printer heats a cable of thermoplastic into liquid form and extrudes it layer by layer.Overall 3D printing has changed and improved over the past thirty years. SLA, SLS, and FDM show the history of 3D printing, and thus how it became a vital tool for manufacturing. It allows you to make virtually anything simply by creating a computer file.

Principles of 3D Printing-

1. Reduction Of Costs Associated With 3D Printing In traditional manufacturing, the more complicated an object’s shape is, the more it costs to make. To produce an object of equal complexity, 3D printing can remove the overhead costs associated with retraining human machinists or retooling factory machines. 

2. No Assembly Is Required By making objects in layers, a 3D printer could print a door with its attached interlocking hinges at the same time, with no assembly required. Supply chains will be shortened, while saving money on labor and transportation costs at the same time

3. Ability To Print On-Demand A 3D printer can print on-demand when an object is required. The capacity for on-the-spot manufacturing reduces the need for companies to stockpile physical inventory. New types of business services become possible as 3D printers enable businesses to make specialty or customized objects on-demand in response to customers’ orders. This could also minimize the costs of longdistance shipping since the object required can be printed as long as a 3D printer is present. 

4. Portable Manufacturing Since 3D printers are generally lighter in weight and smaller in scale compared to traditional machines, users can freely move them around anywhere to print 3D objects.

5. Recise Physical Replication A digital music file can be copied endlessly without losing its audio quality. In the future, 3D printing will extend this digital precision to the world of physical objects. Scanning technology and 3D printing will work together to introduce high-resolution shape shifting between the physical and digital worlds. We will scan, edit, and duplicate physical objects to create exact replicas or even improve upon the originals. 

6. Variety is free A single 3D printer can make many shapes. Like a human artisan, a 3D printer can fabricate a different shape each time. Traditional manufacturing machines are much less versatile and can only make things in a limited spectrum of shapes. 3D printing removes the over- head costs associated with re-training human machinists or re-tooling factory machines. A single 3D printer needs only a different digital blueprint and a fresh batch of raw material. 

7. Less waste by-product 3D printers that work in metal create less waste byproduct than do traditional metal manufacturing techniques. Machining metal is highly wasteful as an estimated 90 percent of the original metal gets ground off and ends up on the factory floor. 3D printing is more wasteless for metal manufacturing. As printing materials improve, "Net shape" manufacturing could be a greener way to make things. 

Applications of 3D Printing-

1. Replacement Parts: Many times for older or rare equipment replacement parts are simply not available. Some things can never be fully repaired unless you have the replacement part it needs. When you own a 3D printer, you can use the machine to produce suitable replacement parts for any number of things.

2. Jewelry: Nowadays jewelry designers now prefer to 3D model and print their designs over traditional handcrafted methods. Jewelry 3D printers create pieces from resin or wax, based on the 3D model of the jeweler's design. Digital models can be easily edited, which makes prototyping jewelry with 3D printing incredibly cheap and convenient. 

3. Shoes: Until today, most shoes were made exclusively in factories, molded with expensive tooling and then stitched together with various materials. Now it’s possible to use a 3D printer to produce comfortable, stylish & custom designed shoes. 

4. Miniature Models: Using 3D printing software and machinery, you can print out miniature models (a small copy of larger things) and specialty replicas to add to your miniature model collection. From buildings to power lines a 3D Printer can virtually recreate a whole cityscape in miniatur. 

5. Functional Organs: Yes, it is possibile to make 3D printed organs. These aren’t just models mind you, scientists are looking into the possibilities of using 3D printing software to actually produce functional replacement organs. 

6. Model making: Model making is another niche practice to which the 3D workflow is ideally suited. Where realistic reproductions were once inordinately expensive or impossible to model, the quality of detailing and finish possible through 3D printing methods has made the production of realistic, detailed miniatures and scale models more affordable & easier. 

7. Forensics: 3D printing has as much potential utility in reconstruction as it does in production. The work of a forensic artist is often made difficult by incomplete evidence. 3D printers can use in legal investigations and can augment the abilities of forensic artists to reconstruct accurate models of persons of interest or victims. 

8. Glasses and Eyewear: According to face shapes, customized eyewears can be made by 3D Printing. Which will lower in cost and at greater convenience to the customer. These Eyewears are lighter, more comfortable, made with minimal waste. 

9. Recreating History 

10. Housing and Construction 

11. Musical Instruments 

12. Movies and Visual Effects 

13. Architecture 

14. Dental Product