The Impact of 3D Printing on Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing is also known as 3D printing that recently has become very influential in the manufacturing industry as it enables the production of compact objects layer by layer built from a digital model. It has been shown that this technology presents a vast number of improvements as compared to the conventional manufacturing techniques in terms of form, efficiency and waste reduction, as well as prototyping.

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Perhaps one of the most revolutionary features associated with this technology applies to the field of rapid prototyping. Professionals who include designers and engineers can easily come up with plan and test models in a shorter period of time than would have been the case with traditional manufacturing. The blended learning method improves its effectiveness due to a faster learning process and more cycles in the design process which results in better quality of the end product.

Finally, using 3D printing also helps to implement the just-in-time protocol, that is, manufacturing parts and components are produced when required and not in bulk. This is especially useful in such sectors as health where body implants, especially prosthetics, customized implants, and in the near future, body tissues created using bio-printing are being produced for specific clients.

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Furthermore, 3D printing involves wastage of lesser material compared to the reduction methods that may involve carving a part out of a large block. This not only allows minimizing the consumption of some resources, but also reduces overall environmental pressure from production stages.

But with the development of the 3D printing it is possible to estimate that technology augured the transition of the Supply Chain and act as the catalyst to bring about a revolution in manufacturing reducing cost of production and bringing about a culture shift from mass production to custom manufactured goods across almost all fields.