Whether testing, prototypes or producing final products, manufacturers are entering the field of 3D printing with unprecedented speed. More and more leading manufacturers are using 3D printing technology.
According to forecasts of well-known research firm Lux Research, in the next decade, the global 3D printing market will quadruple its capacity to reach 12 billion US dollars, of which 7 billion will belong to 3D printing products. More and more companies will not only be satisfied with using 3D printing technology in experiments and prototypes, but will further extend 3D printing applications to the final product manufacturing field.
In fact, Lux Research expects that by 2025, manufacturing's share in the 3D printing market will quadruple to 46%. (Other shares are mainly occupied by sales of 3D printers and consumables.)
Recently, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) investigated more than 100 leading manufacturing companies. It was found that two-thirds of these top companies have already used 3D printing technology, ranging from experiments to prototypes, and even to the manufacture of initial products.
However, in actual manufacturing applications, 3D printing still occupies a very small proportion. Some companies mainly use it to manufacture products that cannot be completed by traditional methods, while others use 3D printing technology to directly manufacture final products and components. Among the manufacturers surveyed, the above two types of companies accounted for only 3% and 1%. Other companies also use 3D printing technology primarily during product design and development. (please see below)
Up to now, the main production company that uses the deepest and most extensive 3D printing is the Ford Motor Company. In its factory in Dearborn Heights, Mich., 14 different models of industrial-grade 3D printers print 200,000 parts per year. This is just one of Ford's five 3D prototyping centers. Ford has a total of three such 3D printing centers in the United States.
Ford Motor Company began using 3D printing technology since the 1980s. In 1988, the third 3D printer produced in the history of global 3D printing was bought by Ford Motor Company.
Ford's 500,000th 3D-printed auto parts are a prototype of a Mustang car hood. Although Ford has been using plastic materials to print prototypes so far, the company is also developing its own 3D printing strategy and plans to use metal to print final products or parts in the future.
Ford employees clean up 3D printed parts
In general, the use of 3D printing technology in prototyping and even future production of the final product will save manufacturers a lot of time and money. Because 3D printing is a growing type of "additive manufacturing" technology, its raw materials are gradually added according to need, how much production, how much to use, in theory, almost no waste of raw materials. This is a big difference from traditional manufacturing methods that rely on cutting (some call it reduced material manufacturing). In practice, when 3D printing is used to manufacture the final product, the scrap rate of production materials can even be reduced from 90% to 10%.
For now, the popularity of 3D printing still has some big obstacles - high costs, time-consuming print jobs, and the inability to mix materials in a single print job. However, in terms of technology trends, the direction of 3D printing technology is still used to directly manufacture the final product.
PwC in its survey pointed out that more and more emerging mid-range 3D printers have previously used higher-end system functions, and as many key patents in the 3D printing field are approaching maturity, this will promote More 3D printing manufacturers make technological innovations.
(Editor)