The Emerging World of 3D Printing

An array of 3D printers at Imaginarium (a Mumbai-based service bureau catering to a

variety of industries)

A dashboard 3D-printed at Tata Motors as a single piece, ready to be fitted directly on

the vehicle for final evaluation

This advanced SLA machine can produce multiple parts

simultaneously

Large Adopters of 3D Printing Technology

1.Imaginarium

oWorld’s largest manufacturer & distributor of Princess cut Diamonds

oFamous Products(a)Filmfare Trophy-Design in the form of Lotus Pedestal(42 Copies were delivered each costing Rs.12000/-)(b)Mumbai Press Club Red Ink Award-for the journalistso3D Printers at workshops

oOne-Stop Shop-They own 17 3D Printers spanning all categories that can print in 24 materials -3D Scannero-Noiseless 3D Printers-Refrigerator like machines with a transparent front-panel through which one can see layer being deposited upon layer creating the desired objectoStaff at this workshop-Total of 200 out of which;(1)10-15 workers armed with sandpaper are furiously scrubbing 3D Printed mobile phone covers (2)Few artisans with micro-motor powered polishers are polishing jewellery made by pouring molten metal into 3D printed wax-like resin moulds

Jewellery Industry & Its impact on Imaginarium

•Jewellery Industry has been one of the earliest adopters of 3D Printing Technology(Most of the young sons of family jewellers are made to learn Computer-Aided Design(CAD) at early ages)•Imaginarium’s Revenue(a)More than Half of the Imaginarium’s revenue is earned from Jewellery Industry(b)the rest being from engineering(40 different verticals that the company has presence in) (c )Revenue has tripled in the last 5 years for Imaginarium & the company is profitable

Imaginarium’s Competitor

Started operations in 1999First Customers-LG & Whirlpool(development of refrigerators & washing machines)Present Clients-Auto & auto ancillaries(During 1990’s,the product development was at a nascent stage in India. When the product development picked up, automobile companies started using it & the business grew in 2010-12)Number of 3D Printers used-4 Printers used spanning all dominant technologies,i.e, SLA, SLS,FDM. In addition to this, the company has subtractive technologies such as computer numerical control machines(CNC) & vacuum castingCost factor-pricing is usually done on ad-hoc basis. The company takes into account the material cost, manpower cost, load factor of the machine, the overhead cost (rent, power).Material costs account for 25-30% of the total cost

Kolkata Based Marco Polo

3D Printing also called Additive Manufacturing(AM)-A New DimensionAdditive Manufacturing is one futuristic innovation that renders 3D Software Models into real world replicas in a host of different materials ranging from ceramics & plastics to Glass & metal

Application of 3D Printing-3D Printing finds wide spread applications in various industries such as aerospace, automobiles, jewellery, medical devices & space technology

Wohlers Report 2014-Revenues from 3D Printing are expected to quadruple from $ 3.07 Billion in 2013 to $ 12.8 Billion in 2018 & is expected to exceed $ 21 Billion by 2020

Evolution of 3D Printing-In 1986,Chuck Hull, founder of 3D Systems patented his Stereolithography(SLA) Technology(It wasn’t called 3D Printing then)- Nomenclature has evolved over the years from rapid prototyping to 3D Printing to the now-popular Additive Manufacturing(AMOver the years technology has evolved & various MNC’s have come up with patented proprietary technology for 3D PrintingEx: Stratasys (3D Printing firm) patented its Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) Technology & EOS patented its Selective Laser Sintering(SLS)Technology

Case Study-Hewlett Packard (HP has recently announced plans to introduce its own commercial 3D Printers in 2016 that will most likely shake the industry & propel the industry into commercial viability given HP’s size & clout-Presently given the prohibitive pricing of these patented 3D Printers, only large corporations have been able to avail this technology primarily in aerospace, automative,medical devices & Jewellery industry

Gartner’s Reports-Gartner in a report by analyst Janessa Rivera places 3D Printing in the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2015 -3D Printing will reach a tipping point over the next three years as the market for relatively low-cost 3D Printing devices continues to grow rapidly & industrial use expands significantly-new industrial, biomedical & consumer applications will continue to demonstrate that 3D Printing is a real, viable & cost-effective means to reduce costs through improved designs, streamlined prototyping & short-run manufacturing-Worldwide shipments of 3D Printers will reach 217,350 units in 2015 up from 198151 in 2014.-3D Printer shipments will more than double every year between 2015 & 2018 by which time worldwide shipments are forecast to reach more than 2.3 million

Relevance of 3D Printing

Even the 2.3 million shipments that are forecasted to be be sold in 2018 are a small fraction of the total potential market of Consumers, Businesses & Govt Organizations worldwide

Use of 3D Printers in various Industrial Sectors• Companies in the Aerospace & automobile

sectors are using it to streamline their prototyping process

Aerospace & Automobile

• Companies in these sector are using it for direct manufacturing of final products

Jewellery & Medical Device

•3D Printing is used to provide high-end dental prosthetics services

Ex :Dinesh Jain(Bombay based dentist uses this technology to provide high-end

dental prosthetics services.-He owns 20 3D Scanners spread across the country from where patients send in

their digital dental imprints .These imprints are then 3D Printed in Mumbai

& shipped back-He owns 1 3D Metal Printer.-Total

Investment:Rs.20-25 CroresTurnaround: Expected in 10 years

Services Demand: The dental space has seen a pick-up in adoption in the last 5-6 years but prices of these services are 25-25% higher than that of traditional

dentist

Dental Care

Tata Motors

Tata Motors bought its 3D Printing machine in 2003 Process TimeThe Prototyping process time has reduced from two months to two days.Tata has been able to launch a Car much faster in the market & they are able come up with faster prototypes of better qualityEx: According to Industry sources, time is extremely valuable in the field of new product development, so integrating 3D Printing into their prototyping process can lend companies a crucial advanatage.In the real world if you launch a car late by six months, you will end up in making losses in crores.3D Printing will enable faster process timeCreation of Prototype Model before launch to the publicTata Motors would sometime launch products in the market knowing there were improvements that could have been made in the deisgn .Now this problem is solved because 3D Printing enables them to make design improvements in the software model that helps management to see a prototype model before givng it to the vendor for mass manufacturing3D Printing has enabled Tata Motors to optimize their cost,quality & performance

Benefit of 3D Printing to Tata Motors

Tata Motors is currently using 3D Printing to manufacture cosmetic trim parts such as dashboards as well as some major underhood engine parts especially those which require a lot of optimization & multiple iterations before they get it

right Ex: The Geometry of the intake manifold which supplies fuel & air mixture to the cylinders is critical in optimizing the performance of the engine. Multiple iterations are required to optimize this Geometry.3D Printing just helps us in this process

Tata Motors & its 3D Printers

•Tata Motors possesses 4 Direct 3D Printing machines;-2 Stereolithography(SLA) Technology-1 Selective Laser Sintering(SLS)Technology -1 Low-Cost 3D Printer(3D Printing machine was acquired in the year 2009.This machine can

make big parts such as a car dashboard in one piece-Tata Motors is planning to invest in direct metal rapid prototyping &

multi-material printers in the future to make good quality parts

Currently Tata Motors has no plans to use 3D Printers for direct manufacturing because of the following reasons;

(1) it is not cot efficient to use the technology for mass production(2) Across the world, all parts in vehicles needs homologation from regulatory agencies suah as the

Automotive Research Association of India(ARAI)(3) 3D Printing materials & processes are not standardized & have to go through rigorous testing to be used

on production cars(4) For most of the 3D Printers, performance over a long duration & reliability is still not established(5) Issues of high cost of materials ,longer manufacturing times for mass production 7 standardization &

reliability conformance(6) ARAI needs to validate the materials used & additive manufacturing of final vehicle parts is not possible

at present

3D Printing at General Electric(GE)

According to a Deloitte report on 3D Printing, GE plans to mass produce 25000 LEAP Engine Nozzles(the first jet

engine designed using 19 3D-Printed fuel nozzles that are 5

times more durable & 25% lighter than previous models) with additive manufacturing with already $22 Billion in

commitments

GE’s multidisciplinary R&D Centre in Bengaluru acquired its first 3D Printers around 2 Years ago. At

present GE has around 6 3D Printers divided between 2

Technologies;(1)FDM-which enables GE to build parts of a certain quality, shape &

speed(2)Polyjet-Which allows GE to build soft & transparent parts

Verticals such as power & water, avaiation,oil & gas have large

programmes dedicated to making certain parts using the 3D Printing

process,GE has also variety of plastic printers which cater to the

needs of Designers(A new Metal Printer is undergoing installation. It will be running in 2

months)

3D Printing & its applications

Assembly Line :3D Printing could dramatically change the assembly line, the bedrock of efficient manufacturing. In a traditional manufacturing set-up, you need a whole set of

machines to make a part conventionally,i.e.milling machine, finishing machine etc.3D Printing reduces this by several stepsDistributed Manufacturing: A factory floor in the future is

definitely going to look different. The manufacturing & assembly line will be shrunk since 3D Printing will allow you to do distributed manufacturing with smaller manufacturing units

spread over different locationsMultiple Geometry: Another important change is that one

machine will allow you to make parts with differing geometry(since custom designs are possible with 3D Printing)

There is an immense potential in 3D Printing to revolutionize manufacturing since it dramatically reduces the number of steps it require to make a

part. But it won’t be a direct replacement for CNC

3D Printing Technology Limitation At present CNC is used for precision machining of larger components that require

significant material removal. It is unlikely that 3D Printing will replace those parts that are large & material-intense such as large castings or fabricated parts

It is not competitive in terms of time/cost for producing high volume parts which are made using special purpose machines. It will be more beneficial for intricate parts with demanding

material properties

Case Study

LEAP Jet Engine Fuel NozzleOne of the excellent part that showcases the potential of 3D Printing Technology is the LEAP Jet Engine Fuel Nozzle. This has intricate & very complex parts made by 3D Printing Technology. This part is representative of what 3D Printing enables us to do. It has multiple components made into one single part with demanding material properties

Intech DMLS(A 3D Metal printing Solution Provider)-Head quarters-BangaloreNature of work-Printing 3D Metal parts & Providing weight reduction solutions\Ex: In the aerospace sector, reduction in weight of components means saving thousands of dollars in fuel costs-For metal printing, Intech DLMS had acquired know-how from Germany based EOS GmbH-A leader in the 3D Printing space)-Intch started less than 2 years ago & owns 3 EOS Machines & other support systems & software-Order Book-$1.5 Million-Target-$ 12 to $ 14

Intech DLMS views on 3D Printing TechnologyLooking at the growth of the technology, soon some flying hardware for global OEM’s will be made in IndiaAnother 10 years one can see a 3D Printing machine in every street3D Printing Technology has a lot of promise for every industrial vertical & will slowly trickle down to manufacturing once standards are established. Also machines will become faster & raw materials get cheaper once volumes growThe shift towards direct digital manufacturing is already happening with revenues from production of final parts now accounting for 35% of the global 3D Printing market in 2013,the corresponding figure for 2012 is 29% compared to 3% in 2003-Wohlers Report 2014

3D Printed Aeroplane

Honeywell No of Printers-7 Printers in the

range of $ 8,00,000 to a million & 15

Plastic Printers in the range of $

1,50,000-2,00,000-Started using 3D Printer 10 years ago beginning

with thermoplastics

Benefits Availed-By using this, Honeywell has shortened the Design Cycle

time by around 60%

(From 6 Months to 2-3 Months

since design iterations can be

made quickly

-Honeywell is in the process of

undertaking some benchmarking

studies to find the cost of Direct

Manufacturing using 3D Printers

-At present Honeywell is only

using it in prototyping .After a year, Honeywell

will be using in the production of

intricate parts saving 30-50%

-Applications of 3D Printing for

direct manufacturing are higher in the

aerospace industry because

of smaller volumes while it is not feasible in the transportation

systems space since volumes are

bigger

Typically 3D Printing is preferred for complex & intricate parts .For a simple turning & milling operation, companies

can use conventional machinery

Defense Research Development Organization(DRDO) & Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO)

o ISRO is presently using 3D Printing in making intricate satellite components especially wave guide components. Earlier ISRO used subtractive methods

CNC which wastes lot of materials & energy.3D Printing helped ISRO build the part from bottom to

top without much wastageo3D Printing Services used

-ISRO doesn't own any 3D Pinter as of now & are using the services of WIPRO in Bangalore. They don’t have any plans to buy the printer in the near

future because they want to establish the technique to see whether it can generate space worthy hardware

ISROViews on 3D Printing by R Chidambaram(Chief

Scientific Advisor to GOI)Bu using 3D Printing Technology, whatever developed countries like Europeans make, we can make at half the cost. India can achieve world-class quality & reduce the

costEx: Corrector Magnets used in the Large Hadron

Collider(LHC0 supplied by India for $40 million, half the price in Europe

The third Industrial Revolution has been led by the Internet & a broad term called Digital

Manufacturing.AM is a part of digital manufacturing To enable research collaboration, Indian Govt has set

up National Knowledge Network(NKN) which is na high-speed low-latency network at a cost of $ 1

Billion.NKN connectivity can be used to create an overlaying grid which can be devoted to AM research.

Ex:If Institutions across Geographies are developing something in collaboration,NKN can be used & since it

is a low latency network, the information is shred immediately

Early Adopters of the technology complain about Govt apathy towards the technology in terms of Tax Incentives & reduced imports

duties .India levies Most favored Nation(MFN)duty rates of 7.5% compared to a

Global average of 2.8% along with other additional duties & taxes

There is no subsidy given by the Govt or advantage offered for upgradation of 3D Printing Technology because it is not a

priority sector for our Govt unlike in other developed countries. Indian companies borrow at the same commercial rates, pay the same customs duty, pay the same taxes as anyone else would pay

because of which the cost is quite prohibitive

Other uses of 3D Printing Technology & Future ahead

Parampreet Chadha(Business Executive)Chadha has already built a miniature aeroplane

model, a penstand,usable paper clips & a beverage coaster that has since found a place on his glass

dining table. All of this form a pinkish thermoplastic filament called ‘Acrylonitrile

Butadiene Styrene(ABS) which is used as the input material in creating objects & is incidentally the

same material which is used to make Lego Bricks. The technology functions by squirting molten

plastic layer upon layer thereby creating complex 3 Dimensional Models

Chadha states that it was a viral video which showcased a wrench being 3DPrinted that got him excited about the Technology

Chadha eventually brought a cheap home 3D Printer for around Rs.50000/-.He now

designs 3D-Printable models himself & also downloads designs from Thingiverse9a flourishing online open-source design

community that is an indispensable resource for any home 3D Printer owner. Thingiverse

has some really cool designs .If anyone wants to “3D Print a tree", you can specify how

many branches you want & how many leaves on every branch. This is quite an incredible

resource

3D Printing Technology in every factory/Industry is still a far away reality

As usual, cost-efficiency is bummer & there are issues regarding the reliability & repeatability of products created using cheap Desktop 3D Printers

Patents & Prohibitive costs make a capital-intensive business unremunerative while the future calls out like a siren on the rocks, promising it a place in the sun

Presently n India, the industry fortunes are tied to new product development & hence for the 3D Printing industry to thrive, just Make in India Model wont suffice, there will

have to be Create in India Model

Anup George Rebello

Asst.Manager

The Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd