3D printing will become the key circle in the field of 4.0 high-end manufacturing

3D printing will open the production mode of private custom, which has a bright future in market application

Recently years, 3D printing is very popular in the market. The appearance of 3D printing house, 3D printing car as well as other 3D printing products, which not only attracts people’s eyes at wide range but also make 3D printing gold eggs in investment fund, including silver state shares, China aviation heavy machinery, central China numerical control. In fact, 3D printing is not new. As early as the 1980s, there were specialized research institutes and enterprises engaged in the research and development of 3D printing equipment, materials and products. After decades of development, 3D printing has got technology breakthrough and preliminary application in the field of Industrial modeling, machinery manufacturing, military, architecture, film and television, light industrial, medical, archaeology, cultural art, sculpture, jewelry. Although the global 3D printing market share accounted for only 0.02% of all manufacturing, its application field will continue to develop and application scale will be expanding with the  development of 3D printing technology and material. In 2012, the global 3D printing equipment market was $22.04 billion, up 28.6% year on year, which is expected to reach  $5 billion by 2017 and $10.8 billion by 2020.

3D printing must get policy support in the background of 4.0 industry

The 3D printing technology perfectly fits the concept of intelligent, resource efficiency and humanization of industry 4.0, therefore it becomes the focus of the development of the country. In 2012, Obama put forward a series of development plan for America's manufacturing and listed 3D printing as an important technology of 11. He also banded with  research and development institutions, colleges and universities, manufacturers to establish national 3D printing institutions. 3D printing is a revolution in manufacturing technology that is critical to Chinese manufacturing upgrading. China has been developing 3D printing technology since the 1990s. At present, Tsinghua university, Beijing university of aeronautics and astronautics, Xi 'an Jiaotong university, Huazhong university of science and technology and Beijing prosperous source company have got some research achievements in the field of 3D printing equipment and materials. In October 2012, China's 3D printing technology industry alliance was established. In 2013, China's 3D printing technology industry innovation center (Nanjing, Weifang, Zhuhai) was established one after another. In 2013, 3D printing was selected as the national 863 program. The state will provide 40 million RMB as research fund to support the development of 3D printing core technology. Beijing will invest 1.5 billion yuan to support 3D printing. In February 2015, the ministry issued the national increase material manufacturing industry development advancement plan (2015-2016) and made overall plan to the development of 3D industry. The future related industrial policies are expected.

Customized manufacturing is the main development direction of 3D printing

Based on the advantages of 3D printing low-cost customization, aviation industry, biomedicine and personal consumption are the most potential applications. During the 13th five-year plan period, China's 3D printing will be the first to be widely used in aviation industry. In January 2013, "laser forming technology of large complex integrated components of aircraft titanium alloy" won the first prize of national technological invention award.China become the world's second master aircraft titanium alloy structure and laser rapid forming technology of countries, the world's only master laser forming of titanium alloy large main bearing component manufacturing and put it into practical state. The aviation sector and the automobile manufacturing industry are one of the most advantageous fields for this type of 3D printing technology. In the next few years, its application will enter into a rapid growth period.

The application of 3D printing in biomedicine has been preliminarily revealed. The applications being explored are mainly false teeth and artificial limbs. When 3D printing technology is combined with medical image modeling and simulation technology, it can be widely used in artificial prostheses, implants and artificial tissue organs. With further breakthrough of printing equipment and printing materials technology and cost down further, 3D printing will be further developed in the field of in the personal consumption area (food, artwork, personalized goods, etc). During the 13th five-year plan period, 3D printing will profoundly influence the production methods of manufacturing enterprises and lead the manufacturing industry from standardization and lean production to customized production. After the big development in “13th five-year plan”, through the network and information technology, China is expected to initially form a new manufacturing model represented by "individual creativity + community building + cloud manufacturing” during 14th five-year.

The industrialization of 3D printing needs to break through four major bottlenecks

In the medium and long term, the 3D printing industry has a broad development prospect. However, there is a great distance between the industry and the mature stage. In the short term, the development of 3D printing should not be overestimated. To realize the industrialization development of 3D printing, we need to break through four bottlenecks, such as technical cost, printing material, product quality and social risk. In terms of technology cost, for example, 3D printers are expensive, and most desktop 3D printers cost about 20,000 RMB. The domestic reproduction price can be below 6000 yuan, but the quality is not guaranteed. In the aspect of printing materials, the 3D printing materials are mostly chemical polymers. The selection is limited, the physical properties of the molding products are poor, and there are hidden dangers in the security aspects. The price of other materials is also on the high side and it is necessary to enrich the materials and reduce the price of materials. In terms of product quality, many 3D printing products are not satisfactory, and the printing efficiency is far from the industrialization demand. Moreover, there is a serious conflict between printing accuracy and speed. In terms of social risk, the technological advantages of 3D printing make it easier to counterfeit. In the absence of intellectual property rights, the flood of 3D printing technology will bring serious social risks. (Saidi consultant Leiyang)