Context

We live in a fast-evolving world where Europe is sometimes described as “too slow, for sure!” to paraphrase one famous president…But the race to technological supremacy and innovation watersheds is not a sprint nor a marathon, it is a long road that will probably end when humanity ends. After all, having missed the turn of the 18^th century industrial revolution, did China not successfully manage to come back to the forefront in the 21^st century? Why can’t we?

What really, is a factory?

When we think about the industry we think of large fuming factories and difficult physical jobs aiming to produce products.
What if I told you that a modern factory can start on your desktop?

Previously if a product idea passed your thoughts, it would remain an idea. You had no straightforward way of concretizing your thoughts without breaking your non-existent budget, lagging behind due to huge lead times, or hitting a technical wall.

From IDEA to PRODUCT

3D printing offers you a compact and versatile solution to this problem!  It allows you to test your design, prototype it, iterate & correct, produce it in reasonable quantities then scale.

Your future factory could effectively start on your desktop, grow into an improvised workshop in your garage, then to a fully grown manufacturing facility. All of this while reducing your time to market drastically.

Below are two processes schematized, 3D printing vs Traditional :

But what’s 3D printing?

3D printing is a manufacturing process that builds parts by adding material layers on top of layers.
The main difference with traditional processes is that there is no need to adapt the raw material format to your machine and there is no need for additional tools, jigs or moulds to form the shapes you want.

This gives you a flexible platform on which you can produce different shapes of products.
In a single day, you can manufacture a phone-stand, a flower vase and a done structure all on the same machine using the same setup. This opens doors for product customization.

Solving the supply-chain problem?

Nothing made our supply-chain problem more obvious than the covid crisis! We woke up to a mask shortage in the EU in a time where we needed these supplies the most à packages were supposed to be coming from China, but in a time of crisis logistics failed us.

3D printing also simplifies supply-chain: you only have to manage raw-material supply to your machine.
There is no need to manage additional tools or consumables.
During the logistics nightmare of the 2022 war on Ukraine, Ukrainians understood the assignment : 3D printing was used extensively to produce drones and spare parts. This was achieved close to the frontlines, gaining in efficiency and solving logistics constraint.

What skills are needed?

3D printing also reduces the level of required technical expertise.
You only need to master additive manufacturing & CAD parts Design.
Whereas in a traditional process, you need expertise in the subject process, product design, tooling design, tooling manufacturing…And you might probably have to rely on external sub-contractors.

Pros and Cons!

To summarize, below are the pros & cons of 3D printing mapped for you:

	PROS	CONS	Observations
Ease of Use	✓ ✓
Setup Cost	✓ ✓ ✓
Surface Quality		X	Depending on the application, post-processing might be needed
Design Iteration	✓ ✓ ✓
Process Flexibility	✓ ✓ ✓
Customization	✓ ✓ ✓
Active community	✓ ✓ ✓		Very active online community that pushes for more & more innovation
Production rate		X X X	Low production rate vs more traditional processes (i.e injection molding)
Supply Chain management	✓ ✓

 

In Conclusion

3D printing is not the magical solution for the rebirth of our industry.
It is also not capable to fully replace all other traditional more complex processes.

Instead, one should view it as it actually is: another tool in our industrial toolbox. A tool that gives you the flexibility you need to start, before scaling and developing further
A tool that will also allow you to discover the joy of manufacturing your own product! And this might be its biggest perk à 3D printing democratized production.

It all starts with you, what product idea would you like to see designed & printed?

By the way, several 3D printing processes exist. Many different material types can be “printed”.
We will explore those in the following blog. Subscribe & stay tuned to 3DKnight! 😉