As we all know, 3D printing technology can support plastic, resin, ceramic, metal and other kinds of consumables for printing, so it is widely used in aerospace, medical, industrial design and many other fields. However, while reducing the R & D cycle, assembly and mold cost, enterprises pay more attention to the impact of 3D printing technology on manufacturing cost. For this reason, we summarize six design elements of 3D printing for you, so as to analyze how to reduce the additional manufacturing costs brought by 3D printing, and how to highlight its advantages in reducing the manufacturing costs of enterprises and improving the comprehensive benefits.
3D printing materials? In fact, researchers from Purdue University in the United States have proposed two methods to significantly reduce 3D printing time and materials: a new packmerger algorithm, that is, an object is divided into several sections for printing, and then bonded together. For example, the rabbit in the figure below is automatically divided into multiple components and printed out. The time required is shortened from 13.5 hours to 9.5 hours, and the material consumption is also reduced from 351 grams to 229 grams. The optimization time is 1 minute with algorithm, and the assembly time is 15 minutes. The core of the algorithm is to put as many elements as possible into the known space (like the Tetris game).
In addition, another method is to generate a smaller support structure through other algorithms, which can reduce the printing time by an average of 30% and the 3D printing material by 40% (as shown in the figure below). Before printing, the algorithm is used to determine how the 3D model should be placed on the printer tray to minimize the support needed for the extended part. The computer will automatically rotate the 3D model in all directions to find the placement mode of the 3D model requiring the minimum support structure.
If you think that the above contents are understood more deeply, or even lose patience, it doesn't matter. Let's start from the following six points: 1. Optimize design. The well-designed 3D printing parts follow many principles similar to injection molding, such as: use gradual transition between adjacent surfaces; avoid the huge difference between cross-sectional area and part volume; avoid the sharp angle of residual stress on the finished workpiece; the thin-walled structure without support shall not be too high, or warpage will occur.
2. Abandon tradition. You should know that typical 3D printing parts often have bionic design, such as honeycomb structure or complex lattice structure. Do not be afraid to use this structure in design, as long as they can create lighter and stronger parts. It is not necessary to use the hole structure in the design, because the traditional manufacturing method increases the waste of materials in the parts, which leads to the increase of cost. It should be noted that in additive manufacturing, especially in laser molten metal 3D technology manufacturing round holes, it is necessary to comprehensively consider whether to add the support structure of holes and the possible deformation of the lower surface. In some cases, it is better to use teardrop shape or hexagonal hole structure instead of circular hole.
3. Comprehensively consider the manufacturing mode of parts in mass production. We say that 3D printing technology can realize free modeling and bring a lot of space for part design, such as manufacturing parts with many hole structures. In fact, many enterprises have realized that 3D printing technology can be competent for small-scale production of parts, but when large-scale production is needed, it still needs to be converted into traditional processes such as machining and casting. Therefore, in this case, at the beginning of design, the designer needs to comprehensively consider what kind of manufacturing process will be adopted when the parts are put into mass production in the future, and whether the design scheme can also be successfully realized. 4. Reduce the secondary operation after printing. Some 3D printing processes need to add support structures to the printed objects to prevent them from curling or warping. For example, in SLA 3D printing, we need to add support structure for printing objects. The metal support structure formed by printing needs to be removed by machining after printing, while the plastic support structure needs to be removed by handheld sander. However, either way, it will increase the cost and prolong the manufacturing cycle. Therefore, at the beginning of the design, we should consider changing the design or the placement of parts, and try to avoid adding support structure to the parts. 5. Observe the tolerance. When 3D printing metal, in order to meet the tolerance requirements of metal parts, sometimes it is necessary to use secondary processing technology such as machining, but excessive pursuit of tolerance requirements will affect the design and manufacturing of 3D printing parts, such as excessive pursuit of precision and increase the number of printing layers, thus increasing the printing time and printing cost. Therefore, we should adopt the appropriate design strategy, sometimes we can reduce the use of post-processing printing process.
6. Focus on the overall situation. Although the material cost and equipment cost of 3D printing are higher than that of traditional manufacturing process, do not be deterred. Especially in the design of 3D printing parts, we should pay more attention to the advantages of 3D printing technology in the realization of complex lightweight structure and functional integration of parts, and stimulate the role of 3D printing in the optimization of parts design as much as possible. If we only focus on the impact of 3D printing technology on manufacturing cost, and ignore its potential in reshaping product design and function and reshaping supply chain, we will miss the opportunity to create more comprehensive benefits by using 3D printing.
Source: Wisdom first · 3D our bank - Solomon