It all started in
EuroMold fair (one of the biggest trade fairs held in Frankfurt, which shows
machine prototypes of products) where the industry of future was not just visualized
but also seen. In November last year at EuroMold fair, there were a group of
machines at display called as 3D printers. Sounds somewhat that it may generate
3D images or so, but in reality it was not so. They were the printers used for
manufacturing. Sounds strange!!! But they were used for generating real
materialistic objects from the digital sources. Imagine you have a digital
image of an iron ball, you just give a print command and the iron ball is there
for you in the 3D printer. Now, this is not imaginable but real. An American firm,
3D systems, used one of its 3D printers to print a hammer, complete with a
wooden handle and metalized head. This is called the INDUSTRY OF FUTURE.
No doubt that it is a new technique and it in its infant stage but if we look at futuristic scope, we can call it as the Third Industrial Revolution. First industrial revolution began in Britain in 18th century with the mechanization of the textile industry, second began in America in 20th century with the era of mass production, and now it’s the time for the digital manufacturing using smart software’s capable of customized manufacturing with such an ease in terms of cost as well as time that no one can imagine.
China is leading the manufacturing sector in the world and has decreased the manufacturing jobs in America by one third. Outsourcing the manufacturing parts and getting it assembled became the basis of all the manufacturing companies because it reduces the manufacturing cost of the product by huge amount. But now workers in china are not so cheap, they are also demanding high salaries for the work they are being producing and with in very short span of time. For this reason many of the production houses are moving towards the other cheaper countries. For instance Nike has shifted it production base from china to Vietnam, which is now the company’s biggest production base. Many other production houses are moving to the countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia. But now with the invent of technology many of the production houses are moving into their native countries and setup base over there. They can have robots to control the production process, they can have smart machines and smart software that can be very beneficial as for the reduction of wage cost and more over it increases the economy of the country and all the production process is under observation and if one needs any alterations then it can be made very easily which is very difficult if the production base in elsewhere located.
3D Printing
At Rock hill, South
Carolina, in a business park there is a factory of future which is working on
the vision to change the way thing are manufactured. There are lots of machines,
some are bulk size like cars and some small as microwave but all are operated
by computers. Some machines are printing ornaments and some other parts that
can be assembled as a product later.
This factory is the head quarters of 3D systems, a firm founded by Chuck Hill. Basically 3D printing was started as a way to make prototypes but as the technology expands it can be used to print fully finished products. The ability to produce highly complex designs using the smart software and then turning them into 3D objects that too without any nuts and bolts as a single structure has created a new world of manufacturing. With the invent of this technology the workers engaged un the manufacturing process will be decreased but that does not means it decreases the employment, but the employment becomes more and more skilled. Now the factories will be full of designers, IT specialists, accountants, logistic experts, marketing staff, customer relationship managers, cooks and cleaners and a few if required manufacturing experts. So in this way the scenario is going to change.
Working of a 3D printer
The 3D printer works
on the phenomenon of additive manufacturing. It works in the same manner as the
paper printers. The command is given to the printer and the printer creates a
layer of ink over the paper surface and the paper gets printed. The same is the
fundamental with the 3D printer but here the layers are more than one and this
is known as additive printing. In 3D printing the smart software creates the dgital
slices of the product and send the command to the 3D printer which then successively
adds the slces one on to the other and creates a 3D object. The difference is
that the ink used in 3D printer is the material. The layers can come together in
many of the ways, some printers uses inkjet process. Object which is an Israeli
firm uses inkjet method to create a plastic layer which is then exposed to ultraviolet
rays it get cut into the desired shape and then new thin layer of plastic gets
deposited again and again to make a 3D object. Many of the firms are using
powder as the print medium. The powder can be spread onto the priting medium
and then it can be solidified using the liquid binder and the process can be
continued to create a 3D object. The extra material can be blown off.
