It was estimated recently in 3D-printing market study that
accelerating technological development will drive the 3D-printing market value
from its current $3.8 billion to $16.2 billion by 2018. Something has to go
into those machines though.
Plastic still reigns supreme in the 3D-printing materials
world. According to a recent SmarTech Markets Publishing report, 3D printing is
expected to generate $1.4 billion in plastics sales by 2019. This isn’t just
your “everyday” plastic. The industry is widely experimenting with new, novel
approaches, such as bio-based resins made from corn and soybean oil.
But it doesn’t stop there in the 3D-printing materials world.
Metal Mania. If there is a runner-up to plastic, it would be
metal. Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) is the technique and, unlike
printing plastics, it can be used to make either a finished industrial product
or a prototype. The aviation industry is already an early proponent and
consumer of DMLS printing to streamline operations and manufacture
ready-to-install parts. There are even already mass-market DMLS printers for
creating jewelry.
The growth and popularity of 3D printing of metals holds the
potential to manufacture and create more effective machine parts that currently
cannot be mass-produced onsite. This could lead to better conductors, tensile
strength, and other attributes of laboratory metals than “mined-and-refined”
metals such as steel and copper.
In the aerospace industry, the materials question is largely
answered, and creating volume of parts is the Holy Grail. GE Aviation will
begin printing injectors for its LEAP jet engine in 2016 and ramp up to about
35,000 per year just four years after that. It is the biggest and most
ambitious additive manufacturing project ever undertaken by anyone in the
industry.
In the aerospace industry, the materials question is largely
answered, and creating volume of parts is the Holy Grail. GE Aviation will
begin printing injectors for its LEAP jet engine in 2016 and ramp up to about
35,000 per year just four years after that. It is the biggest and most
ambitious additive manufacturing project ever undertaken by anyone in the
industry.
The Newcomers: Graphite and Graphene. Australian-listed
graphite and nickel miner Kibaran Resources has partnered with 3D-printing
company 3D Group to share development costs on a research and development
venture called 3D Graphtech Industries.
The partnership is pursuing patents to investigate 3D
printing of graphite and graphene, a pure form of carbon first created in a
laboratory in 2004. Graphene conducts electricity better, is stronger, easier
to insulate, and lighter than other conductors on the market today. It
outperforms even the best conductors several times over. As it must be created
in a lab, it is a good case study for just what kind of mass production of
metals additive manufacturing can accomplish.
Materials for research and development is sourced from
Kibaran’s Tanzanian mines where graphite with high crystallinity and a purity
of 99.9 percent carbon has been found. This is incredibly well-suited to the
production of graphene.
The semiconductor industry is interested in producing large
quantities of graphene as well. For example, IBM recently found a way to use it
for LED lighting. The ability to 3D print sheets of material for use in LEDs
would seriously cut lighting production costs. So if you are looking for plastic
industrial printing services visit Allindiayellowpage.com
to get detail information.