Revolutionary Aspects of 3D Printing Technology

By: Digvijay Singh Ponia, Product Manager, Hallwaze

Those of you haven’t seen 3D printing in action, may think it sounds futuristic or something out of a toon show where keypads are pressed and things magically appear. To your amazement, 3D printing technology is quite straightforward. It is a small but an effective evolutionary step which starts by spraying some toner on paper and further putting down several layers of important plastic resin as the layers combine to develop an object. Now, that the 3D printing technology is literally handing us over new shapes and size, it is a journey ushering us into a new era.

3D printing has come across a long path, it is no longer a theoretical concept but has taken shape of reality. Now, 3D printers are even cheaper to obtain, a variety of models are available for sale and designs for production.  Industry veterans have already predicted that 3D printers will be commonplace in the household, soon. There is a lot to learn and explore when it comes to 3D printing; the science and technology behind the wonders of 3D printing, history, its advancement and future prospects, and what it can attribute to. The usage of 3D printing has a myriad of features- from everyday practical application to commercial parts for manufacturing, and the bonus part is that the technology holds potential to attain bio printing of human body parts for medical revolution.

Since the usage of the apps and technology is growing big, the prices are dropping and the first major trickle effect would be a lot of goods manufacture to the close of their consumption period.  It might even elevate at the household level production and consumption of some things. For instance, you can just pay for the raw materials and the IP, or the files and software for any kind of design that is not readily available on the Internet for usage. In such cases of the short produces and the goods that are dependent on the scale efficiencies of large, centralized plants will be produced for the local consumption. The higher per-unit production cost would also not be much of a concern; it would be tackled by the removal of shipping and of buffer inventories. Also, cars are produced in the figure of hundreds all across the globe, that time is not far away when car manufacturing would take place in every metropolitan city.  Spare parts could very well be made at dealerships and repair shops, whereas the assembly plants could easily remove the urgency of supply chain management by making sure all components are there as needed.

The added benefit to the strong implication theory is that the goods will be more customized to the infinite order as their alter work would not need any retooling purpose. The task can be done by only modifying the instructions in the software.  Creativity on the demand metrics would take priority just like quality control was of utmost importance ages ago.

These first-order implications will cause businesses all along the supply, manufacturing, and retailing chains to rethink their strategies and operations. And a second-order implication will have even greater impact. As 3D printing takes hold, the factors that have made China the workshop of the world will lose much of their force.

Medical applications usage and benefits are moving at a rapid pace to change the face of the medical and healthcare industry. Medical application for 3D printing, in actuality and potential in nature, could easily be classified into several broad categories, such as tissue and organ, research of drug usage, prosthetics, anatomical models and even burn areas. 3D printing in medical industry can open doors to a lot of innovation and revolutionary elements of cost benefit, cost productivity, drugs and equipment and customization of medical products, along with better collaboration. But it should be brought to light that in spite of the new and exciting changes in the medical history and recent ones with the 3D printing technology, the progress and track record hints at the timely and proper evolvement of this technology to reap benefits out of it.