How will/has 3D printing changed the world of design engineering?
Dr. W. Gordon Kruberg, president and CEO, Gumstix
The ability to create any object imaginable at the touch of a button. This idea has long captivated the imaginations of not only tech enthusiasts, but everyday consumers as well. With the recent realization of affordable 3D printers, the world of design engineering has already begun a transformation with an eye to printability. For example, in the future, the designer of a product may no longer need to deal with the logistics of manufacturing and shipping the end result. Instead, the designer can simply sell the design plans which can be printed on high-quality, extremely capable home 3D printers with a variety of materials from plastics to metals.
The ability to print at home will also introduce another challenge for design engineers: how to make objects that can not only be printed, but are also smart, connected and capable. The proliferation of ubiquitous computing and the “Internet of things” will complement the drastic changes in design engineering and conceivably allow smart devices to be printed and assembled at home. An example of this can be found in Intel’s Tomorrow Project and its concept for an open-source, 21st Century Robot – one whose skeleton can be printed at home, servos snapped in and powered by a tiny computer or robotics platform.
In this way, 3D printing brings elements of the open-source movement into the field of design engineering. As standardized hardware, software and design platforms become available for smart objects, the potential for innovation within the design field will become virtually limitless. These changes will not only benefit the end-users of objects in the everyday world, but everyone involved in the design and engineering process gaining the ability to rapidly bring ideas to life at the touch of a button.
 Jim Colby, Littlefuse
The greatest changes in the Consumer market to be driven by 3D Printers are yet to be realized. “Design for Manufacturing” will to a significant degree change to “Design for Printing”. Further, the paradigm of centralized manufacturing with logistics supporting distribution to customers will transition to data files distributed electronically for local/de-centralized manufacturing. Just-in-time manufacturing will become manufacturing-on-demand, leading to the design function becoming de-coupled from the manufacturing cycle. And, ultimately, the design function can become much more in tune with customers’ needs – almost in real time, a design can be implemented and feedback given to the designer, which can then be taken into account for the next design. The cost implications are large as well. This “virtuous” cycle, of design and end-user feedback, eliminates the capital-intensive facilities that interpose themselves in this process and consume large amounts of resources, including time. With shorter design/feedback times, we should also see many more design cycles, leading potentially greater innovation. |
Matt Hlavin, CEO, rp+m
3-D printing is spurring a new industrial revolution that is enabling design engineers to achieve new innovations in design and significant time and cost savings. The technology allows design engineers to build parts that cannot be made via traditional manufacturing, which in turn encourages heightened creativity and innovation.
3-D printing reduces product development time, freeing up time for designers to create more new products, and allows engineers to validate designs prior to production. Design engineers can touch, feel and test the finished product within hours. Rapid prototyping helps engineers identify errors or failures earlier in the design stage than traditional manufacturing, and avoid the high cost associated with flaws detected during production.
Innovations in 3-D printing are being driven largely by technology companies such as Stratasys, 3D Systems, EOS, ExOne and Arcam. These companies have developed equipment and software to benefit design engineers, as well as technology that allows engineers to rapidly produce end-use parts directly from raw materials. At rp+m, we are seeing about 40-50% of parts coming straight off of our 3-D printers as end-use production parts.
While 3-D printing has historically focused on polymer materials, engineers now have the flexibility to work with a rapidly-expanding portfolio of materials, including metals and ceramics. This opens the door for new end-use and industry applications.
With the advent of new 3-D printing processes, such as Arburg’s new Freeformer printer, the horizons of what’s possible in design engineering will likewise continue to expand. We envision a macro shift from the current “design for manufacturing” model to “manufacturing by design.” In other words, using 3-D printing technology, designers can focus on design first and foremost. A move to biomimetic design – or design inspired by nature – is one potential outcome. In nature, materials and structures are elegantly designed, using material only where needed (e.g. bones in a bird). In the future, designers may use nature-inspired design to develop lighter, more streamlined parts and products and increase efficiencies in industries such as oil and gas drilling, and aerospace.
