Tag Archives: 3D Printing

28 Aug 2014

Most engineers will tell you that 3D printing represents another significant development within the manufacturing industry.

How does 3D printing work?

Rather than making something by sticking lots of small parts together, a 3D printer can build complicated items in one piece. The printers use a variety of very different types of additive manufacturing technologies but they all share one core thing in common. They create a three dimensional object by building it layer by layer.

3D printing technology could now offer a new way for engineers to think about how to join and fasten components and the technology is moving away from its prototyping roots. Aerospace engineers are now hoping to prove its potential, one component at a time. Some experts claim 3D printing could even create new capabilities in the fasteners and joints that hold together an aircraft.

6 Mar 2014

If you talk to most engineering experts, they will tell you that 3D printing represents one of the most significant developments ever seen in the manufacturing industry.

For those who are still unsure about 3D printing or as it’s more professionally called, additive manufacturing, the following quote, perhaps, provides the best possible explanation.

“3D printing moves us away from the Henry Ford era mass production line and will bring us to a new reality of customizable, one-off production.”

31 Dec 2013

For the past decade, aerospace manufacturers have used additive printing to prototype select parts.  For example, the global aerospace industry received a jolt earlier this year when AVIC Heavy Machinery Co. Ltd. of China displayed a 5-meter-long (16.4-foot-long) titanium part fabricated with additive manufacturing, also known as 3-D printing.The process is fast and affordable.

Now, printed aircraft parts have flown for the first time in the UK on board a Tornado jet. Engineers at BAE Systems, who are responsible for the mix of plastic, protective covers and metal support struts, said the components demonstrated how 3-D printing could reduce costs and increase strength compared to conventionally made parts. The latest development is also set to pave the way for their wider use in aerospace.

25 Oct 2013

Last year we wrote a post about the introduction of 3D printers to industry.

We made some assumptions about how education, engineering and architecture industries would be likely to use this latest technology. Well 18 months down the line, let’s take a look at the developments of 3D printers and see how they are being used.

The commercial cost of 3D printers has reduced and their use seems to have been incorporated into just about every industry possible.

Hollywood and the film industry has embraced 3D printing wholeheartedly, with costumes, models and monsters all now being made using 3D printing techniques. This 3ders.org article tells in more detail how the production of concept models etc. is much quicker and easier using the latest technology.

5 Jan 2012

“Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands and thus undermines economies of scale.  It may have as profound an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did.” – The Economist, February 10, 2011

With advancements in printing technology, specifically 3D printing, creating three dimensional objects has become easier than ever before. 3D printing works by creating successive layers of material from a digital file and printing and compiling them with a materials printer.  The technology has also made it possible to print different parts and assemblies of an element and add them together in a single build process.

In this post we look at the current state and potential uses of 3D printing.

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