In recent years, with the continuous development of additive manufacturing technology in high performance polymer, in particular in terms of dimensional precision and surface quality, 3D printing is gradually becoming an important force in industrial manufacturing. This technological progression not only makes it possible to produce more sustainable and finer tools, but also makes the manufacturing process more efficient and more flexible.
Compared to traditional mechanical treatment technology, 3D printing has shown significant advantages to shorten delivery cycles, reduce labor costs and meet personalized needs, and becomes an important tool for manufacturing companies in order to improve their competitiveness.
The limits of traditional manufacturing become more and more apparent and 3D printing emerges
In the production of tools and lighting, traditional manufacturing methods such as milling, welding and assembly have been used in industry for many years, but generally have problems such as long manufacturing cycles, complex processes and high costs. Especially in the production of small lots or highly personalized applications, these methods often do not meet the needs of a quick response.
In addition, the growing shortage of skilled labor, in particular in the field of CNC treatment, has also exerted many companies at greater pressure on delivery capacities. At the same time, traditional methods are limited by transformation in structural design and cannot achieve complex geometric or ergonomic optimization, which are precisely the key elements to which modern manufacturing pays more and more attention.
The emergence of additive manufacturing technology has effectively crossed the above limits. It does not require tool path constraints and can quickly form a complex structure, achieving several optimizations of local strengthening, reduction of structural weight and personalized geometric shapes, which makes the tool more in line with real use requirements. In addition, 3D printing no longer requires a lot of manual investment, and from design to manufacturing, it can reach “end -to -end” automation, considerably reducing the operating threshold and error rate.
Production on demand reduces costs, digital stocks release the space
In terms of delivery and stock management cycle, 3D printing shows advantages that traditional manufacturing cannot correspond. Traditional lights can take weeks to manufacture and occupy a large amount of storage resources for storage. Using 3D printing technology, companies can produce on demand, only keep design documents and replace physical stocks with “digital stocks”.
This not only reduces space management costs and stocks, but also avoids withdrawal of the tool caused by design updates or product iterations. In this way, the speed of response and flexibility of manufacturing companies have been considerably improved.
Reduce dependence on technical labor and improve the level of automation of manufacturing
The manufacturing industry has long faced with the problem of the technical shortage of labor, in particular in fields such as the functioning of the CNC and the treatment of precision. The functioning of traditional equipment requires professional training, practical accumulation and strict supervision, which makes labor a bottle of production. The emergence of modern 3D printing systems such as FDM has considerably reduced this pressure.
Its interface is user -friendly, the operating process is standardized and there is no need for continuous monitoring during the printing process, which considerably reduces dependence on qualified operators. This not only saves labor costs, but also helps reach a more continuous and automated manufacturing process.
A variety of high performance materials help industrial quality applications
Improving material performance is one of the main factors that allow 3D printing to be widely used in industrial manufacturing. Today, general public printing technologies such as FDM and DLP can already treat various engineering quality thermoplastics, and their resistance, stiffness and heat resistance are sufficient to replace certain traditional metal tools.
For example, reinforced carbon fiber materials such as ABS-CF10, FDM® Nylon-CF10 and Nylon 12CF are light and very strong mechanically, which makes them ideal for the production of high-load lighting. ASA materials have excellent thermal stability and demonstrate excellent performance in the manufacture of CMM and other detection tools.
The development of DLP technology has further improved the surface quality of printed parts. The surface finish of printed tools is close to injection molding, which helps improve the performance of touch and precision of tools in manual operations. For example, the Material Dura ™ 56 is not only impact resistant, but also has high printing speeds, which makes it ideal to cope with the needs of large lots of light tools.
Industry cases check the actual value of 3D printing
When improving the installation of lights in the window glass, Ford Motor Company used FDM technology from Stratasys and the 12CF nylon material to print a lighter and more ergonomic luminaire. The tool has structurally carried out an optimized design for the strengthening of key parts and non -critical weight reduction, with a global weight reduction of 15%, a reduction of 70% of manufacturing costs and considerably improved the user experience of the operator.
Mug Aircraft Group uses FDM printing technology to improve the production efficiency of its CMM inspection devices. The original use of third -party steel lights was not only expensive and had a long delivery time, but also difficult to iterate quickly. Thanks to the internal 3D printing of personalized lighting, MUG reached personalized production by parts, not only save more than 80% of the cost in certain projects, but also improve the flexibility and response speed of the product inspection process.
Valiant TMS demonstrates the advantages of DLP technology in manufacturing manual tools. They designed an operating tool for locking the amount A of the car, which requires that it be light, high resistance and also in accordance with the operator’s grip habits. In the end, the company chose printers of original stratasys and materials Dura ™ 56 to create finished tools with smooth surfaces and structural optimization.
Compared to traditional processes, the printing time is shortened by 79% and the manufacturing cost is reduced by 78%, fully reflecting the real advantages of high -performance additive manufacturing technology in complex application scenarios.
To summarize
Overall, with improving technological maturity and the accumulation of industry application cases, 3D printing of engineering quality thermoplastic materials gradually goes from the prototype stage to the practical production stage. Additive manufacturing has shown complete advantages in improving manufacturing efficiency, reduction in operating costs, supporting personalized conceptions and reduction in manual dependence.
