What Are The Advantages Of 3d Printing?

What are the benefits of 3D printing? What are the reasons to use it? This is a question that has an easy answer, as the media, companies as well as the general public appear to connect this technology to the fourth industrial revolution. Everyday, more and more people are using and integrating the technology to create new ideas in diverse sectors like aviation, medicine, and jewellery. Offering a wide range of the advantages of 3D printing.

To what extent should companies incorporate it into the manufacturing process? How can a company gain by its implementation? We want to make it easier for you to understand the benefits of 3D printing.

A lower cost for small series

The first point that immediately comes to mind when we think about the benefits of industrial 3d printer is the economic aspect. 3D printing is able to make a less expensive product than other processes for manufacturing by using fewer components.

Additive manufacturing, also referred as 3D printing, comes with an established production cost per piece which leads to virtually no economies of scale. Although this last point could be considered a drawback but it's also plausible to conclude that some businesses will choose to use this method to create specific parts or small quantities that do not exceed a set amount. In such cases making it an advantage of 3D printing.

A fast manufacturing process

While 3D printing of a part can take a few hours, it is an extremely fast method of production that takes the entire lifecycle of a product to account; reducing in some cases the time from several months to only weeks.

With the integration of 3D printing, companies can design the prototype of their own, as opposed to outsourcing this process and then waiting just a few days for the creation of a new idea. Of obviously, this approach comes with an expense, but it finally lets you be more flexible during the design process and eventually speeds up the promotion of the product. This is the reason for the development of "Rapid Manufacturing", which was among the first names for 3d printer in the early 1990s.

A greater freedom of form

One of the biggest developments that have emerged due to 3D technology is the capability to print parts of great geometric complexity. Things that were impossible to make using traditional techniques are now an easy task for any 3d printer under 100.

No need to adapt to the technical constraints of the tool for manufacturing to think of the concept of a 3D model. This opens up for a new world of opportunities for designers as well as other 3D modelers, who can see all the sketches that are circulating in their heads as entangled pieces unassembled forms, or meshes inspired by nature. This new technology has brought about the development of free cad software methods.

The rise in on-demand production

Another interesting aspect is the digitalization of industrial catalogs. In a few years time, the products could possibly be reduced to simple digital files, with the final aim of eliminating the inventory management.