The Future of 3D Printing. Michael Wilson 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, Huddersfield

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1 The Future of 3D Printing Michael Wilson 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, Huddersfield

2 What will be covered What the 3D printing process is like What is on the horizon in terms of Potential business threats in this technology: Potential advantages

3 3D Printing (or Additive Manufacture) Extrusion systems plastic filament extrusion. Heated ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) or PLA (Poly(lactic acid)) is extruded through a nozzle layer by layer.

4 3D Printing (or Additive Manufacture) Sintering systems powerful lasers sinter, or melt, powdered material layer by layer to build up an object. Object self supports Variety of materials from plastics to structural and precious metals

5 3D Printing (or Additive Manufacture) Extrusion systems Cheap to buy (hundreds to low thousands ) Cheap to operate, filament rolls cost < 50 each Simple to operate, come complete with easy consumer software Some machines are unreliable and surface finish, although improving, is poor Can use multiple colours by filament change Sintering systems Expensive to buy (hundreds of thousands ) More expensive, nylon powders can cost 50/kg, metal powders 500/kg, precious metals?/kg More complex software such as Solidworks and Magics needed. Machines need specialist training to use Very reliable, consistent results, complex shapes possible with good surface finish Generally monochrome

6 3D Printing (or Additive Manufacture) Other systems 3D UV cure resins; A digital light processing (DLP) 3D printer utilizes a powerful DLP projector to shine onto a thin section of photoinitiated polymer resin. The result is a quick solid cure of the entire layer in one operation and each time a layer is cured a movable bed is raised up in the Z Axis. Great variety of resins, soft and rigid Binder use printers (e.g. Z Corp); Use liquid binder (glue) on powder layers to produce solid objects. Can use colour extensively with binderinks. Rapid and colourful

7 What is on the horizon? To some extent the horizon is already here Better materials with lower costs Improvements to machines, reducing layer thickness, better finish Increased range of materials

8 What is on the horizon? 3D Printing with concretes Large scale 3D printers based on the extrusion of rapid setting concretes with fibre strengthening Mainstream construction Use in disaster/emergency situations

9 What is on the horizon? 3D Printing with food Currently, extrusion of sugar, chocolate and cereal pastes to create novelty snacks and sweets Much food is already produced by extrusion (e.g. piping bags) Interest from major manufacturers, e.g. Philips in creative cuisine

10 What is on the horizon? 3D Printing with bio-materials Joint replacements Cosmetic procedures and trauma repairs Organ regeneration from stem cell cultures

11 Potential business threats Is this end of traditional manufacture? No. 3D printing should be viewed as an additional tool. Users should look to do things which would be otherwise impossible or too costly, rather than to do something for which an existing method is adequate. Will I lose ownership of my intellectual property? Possibly, but, You will win customers by empowering them to, for example, print replacement parts or customise their purchases Control IP through digital rights management technologies learnt from the music industry Reduce your carbon footprint.

12 Potential advantages Joined-up design and manufacturing Rapid prototyping and design testing Complex designs such as objects within objects Model/replica making for sales and training aids or to preserve precious objects Small scale manufacture, notably of custom items, for example, in healthcare Cutting transport and shipping costs, for example, digital delivery

13 O, brave new world that has such technologies people in't! with apologies to William Shakespeare, The Tempest