3d printing the future of industry

3D printing is changing the way engineers are designing and making things. So what will this mean for manufacturing? Will all our high-tech goods be 3D printed? Find out what 3D printed tech you could encounter in the future

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will I ever have a 3D printed car?

1. Printed parts...p12. Bloodhound...p23. Its all in the detail...p34. Better materials...p45. Best tool for the job...p5

1. Fantasy printing ...p162. Nano printing...p173. New materials...p184. Invisibility cloaks...p195. Camouflage Technology...p20

1. Plane parts...p72. Smart design...p83. Speedy design...p94. Bigger and better...p105. Cheaper flights?...p11

1. Super-smart phone...p122. Printing circuits...p133. Making magnets...p144. When will it happen?...p15

Will everything be 3D printed?

Can you 3D print a plane?

How about a phone 3D printed in-one?

Image: Wikim

edia Commons/

NASA/The Boeing Company

Image: Flickr/terren in Virginia

Image: Flickr/Creative Tools

Image Science M

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Contents

2PRINTED PARTSParts for planes and satellites can be improved with 3D printing, but what about down on earth? Will you be hopping into a 3D printed car for your morning commute? What does Phil Reeves from Econolyst, a 3D printing consultancy, think?

I doubt well be printing entire cars, but we can certainly print parts for cars, especially one-off bespoke parts.

Bloodhound, the rocket-powered supersonic car, has printed parts.

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRYWill I ever have a 3D printed car?

This 3D printed engine part weighs 1.3kg less than the traditionally manufactured one.

Image: Renishaw

Traditionally manufactured engine part.

Image: Renishaw

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3BLOODHOUNDThis 1000 mph supersonic car has 3D printed parts.

Dan Johns, lead engineer on the project, explains why:

To reach supersonic speeds Bloodhound must be light, but the parts must be robust. The nose tip breaks through the sound barrier at huge force; it has to be very strong. We designed it with a complex internal structure that made it very strong and light and 3D printed it in titanium.


This customised steering wheel was 3D printed for Bloodhound driver Andy Green; its ergonomically designed especially for him.

Image: Bloodhound

Bloodhound will reach speeds of 1000mph, zipping 150 metres in the blink of an eye.

Image: Bloodhound

The pockets and grooves inside the nose tip made it very light: You couldnt make this complex shape any other way.

Image: Science Museum

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4ITS ALL IN THE DETAILToday youre likely to find 3D printed personalised parts on a high-end supercar, not in your mass-produced Ford.

But what about the future?

Phil Reeves thinks it doesnt make sense to 3D print mass-produced parts:

A factory can churn out lots of identical items much more efficiently. 3D printings edge is making detailed one-off items that cant be made efficiently other ways.

But some researchers disagree...


Image: Flickr/Damian Morys Photography

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5BETTER MATERIALSCandice Majewski, a lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University of Sheffield, thinks new materials could change how 3D printing is used in industry.

As 3D printers become faster and more powerful it will become efficient to make mass-manufactured parts. But theres a limit to the range of materials that you can print with today.

Im researching new materials designed for 3D printing. With these materials a lot of the parts for cars, aeroplanes, even household appliances, could be made with 3D printers.

Will 3D printing become mass-manufacture?


Candice Majewski

Image: Candice Majewski

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6BEST TOOL FOR THE JOB3D web entrepreneur Seena Rejal had this to say:

In the future I believe industry will reach an equilibrium point where some things are mass manufactured and others are 3D printed, depending on whats most practical and saves money. This sweet spot will shift as the technology improves.


Image: Flickr/Public Domain Photos

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7PLANE PARTSThere arent any 3D printed planes yet. But engineers could soon use 3D printers to make plane parts. We asked Jon Meyer, an aerospace engineer, what the advantages are:

Today industry uses machines to chip away at blocks of material, sculpting the desired part. Around 80% of the material is wasted. There are limits on where the machine can reach. 3D printers build objects in layers, so we can make almost any shape with little waste.

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRYCan you 3D print a plane?

Jon Meyer and his team at EADS use an industrial laser sintering 3D printer to make aeroplane parts out of titanium.

Image: EADS

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8SMART DESIGN3D printing removes some of the limitations of traditional manufacture. Jon Meyer explains how this has helped his team improve the aeroplane parts they make:

In the past, parts were designed to accommodate the limitations of traditional manufacture. Now, with 3D printing, we arent limited in the same way: Designers have new opportunities to make optimised parts that are strong as well as light.


Mathematical software helps designers create parts that are the perfect shape.

Image: EADS

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9SPEEDY DESIGN3D printing also speeds up the design process:

With traditional manufacturing a lot of preparation time is needed to make a new part; sometimes special tools need to be developed and built. 3D printers require little preparation and no special tools. We can test our designs and make changes much more easily. This speeds up our design process and lets us experiment with new ideas.


Aeroplane hinges

Image: Science Museum

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BIGGER AND BETTERThere are limitations normal industrial 3D printers can only make something as big as a lunchbox. Will industry ever use 3D printing to make large parts for planes? Stewart Williams at Cranfield University thinks its possible:

My team 3D prints large metal parts for planes and satellites, up to 5 metres in size. Our printer lays down molten metal in a pattern, using a welding torch and robotic arm, to create the shape we want.

So will manufacturers ever print an entire plane?

Normal laser-sintering printers make more complex metal parts, but they arent as large or robust as those made by this printer.

Image: Welding Engineering and Laser Processing Centre, Cranfield University

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CHEAPER FLIGHTS?Stewart Williams thinks not:

Industry isnt trying to print entire planes, but our large printed plane parts are being thoroughly tested. Hopefully theyll be in use in seven years time. If they pass the tests planes could be made of multiple 3D printed parts, with a much lower cost of manufacture.

Making huge structures with 3D printing uses so much less material that the cost of manufacture can drop by 80%.

Many might hope this will be reflected in the cost of our tickets!

Large 3D printed plane part.

Image: Welding Engineering and Laser Processing Centre, Cranfield University

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRYHow about a phone 3D printed in-one?

A smart object with embedded sensors.

Image: University of Nottingham

SUPER-SMART PHONEResearchers are trying to 3D print electric circuits into objects. If they succeed, 3D printed phones could be possible, as well as gadgets with loads of extra functions.

Chris Tuck, an engineer at the University of Nottingham, explains:

If I can print enough complex circuitry into an object to make a phone, then why not make it do more? A super-smart phone could check your blood sugar levels and send the results directly to your doctor great for people with diabetes.

Sounds fab... Can it be done?

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PRINTING CIRCUITSChris Tuck explains the challenges of printing electric circuits into objects:

Its hard to print an insulating material and a conductive material at the same time. These materials have different properties: they behave differently and dont always build up in the same way. If materials need to be heated to be printed, once they cool the material can warp, damaging the circuitry.

But there has been some success


Researchers printed circuits onto this satellite part. But printing them within an object is more difficult.

Image: Jennie Hills/Science Museum

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MAKING MAGNETSResearchers from Weinberg Medical Physics LLC have printed conducting coils that create magnetic fields. Researcher Mario Urdaneta explains:

We print complex electromagnetic coils for small MRI systems. Doctors will use them to detect dental cavities or illnesses such as cancer. MRI scans are better than X-rays as they dont emit radiation. It takes weeks to make these MRI coils the traditional way, but now they can be printed in minutes.

How long until we have printed super-smart gadgets?


In future these coils could be used to make better electric car engines.

Image: Weinberg Medical Physics LLC

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WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN?Richard Hague leads the EPSRC Centre for Additive Manufacturing at the University of Nottingham. His research focuses on printing multifunctional devices. He says:

There are tough challenges ahead for 3D printing electric devices, and it depends on the complexity you want. We can print a phone screen and case, but if you want to print everything batteries, circuitry, sensors, chips etc were looking at 20-25 years.


Richard Hague

Image: University of Nottingham

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FANTASY PRINTING 3D printing technology has come a long way, with new methods to print more complex objects, faster, with more materials. You might imagine a future where printers cater to your every need, from food to clothes.

In this fantasy printers would build objects up from tiny building blocks, molecule by molecule. This sounds a little far fetched, but researchers are printing on exceedingly small scales.

So how close to the fantasy are they?

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRYWill everything be 3D printed?

Image: Flickr/Creative Tools

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NANO PRINTINGResearchers at Vienna University of Technology have developed a 3D printer capable of nano-scale precision. It prints objects with 100-nanometre detail thats 500 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Lead researcher Aleksandr Ovsianikov explains how it works:

Our printer emits short laser pulses that harden tiny volumes of liquid material to build 3D structures. Mirrors direct the laser beam so fast it moves 5 metres per second. The more focused the laser beam, the higher the degree of detail that can be achieved.


This model of Tower Bridge model is just a quarter of a millimetre across.

Image: Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) group at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien)

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NEW MATERIALSPrinting with such high precision means scientists can print new materials. The structure of these materials can be designed to give them strange properties. Aleksandr explains some of the things these new materials could do:

Its possible to make structures that interact with light in unusual ways. We can design the structure of the material so it reflects or bends certain wavelengths of light in any direction.

What can you do with materials that play with light?


Aleksandr Ovsianikov.

Image: Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) group at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien)

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INVISIBILITY CLOAKSMaterials that manipulate light like this could be used for futuristic applications: super-fast wireless networks, optical computers driven by light, and even invisible materials. It sounds far-fetched, but Aleksandr explained that invisibility cloaks arent just science fiction:

A few years ago 3D printers were used to make invisibility cloaks that make objects invisible to microwaves. Printing on the nano-scale opens the possibility of making these cloaks for visible light.

How do invisibility cloaks work?


3D printed Microwave invisibility cloak

Image: Duke University Photography

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CAMOUFLAGE TECHNOLOGYYaroslav Urzhumov, a researcher at Duke University, explains how his 3D printed microwave invisibility cloak works:

The size and shape of the gaps in the cloak deflect microwaves and make anything in the middle invisible to microwaves. This means the object is invisible to microwave radar. Microwave radar is used widely in todays world, far beyond military applications, in traffic cameras, security cameras, even automatic doors.

An invisibility cloak that works for visible light would need precise nano-scale gaps. In the future these cloaks could be made using nano-scale 3D printing, opening up a world of possibilities for camouflage technology.


Yaroslav Urzhumov

Image: Duke University Photography

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3d printing the future of industry

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