Food, clothes, pistols, cars, airplanes... More and more products are being “pushed out†by 3D printers, and a storm of manufacturing is accumulating.
Recently, the first world 3D printing technology industry conference was held in Beijing. More than 600 people from 3D printing industries from all over the world discussed the "revolution" that may be triggered by 3D printing at the China Grand Hotel.
However, even if people put a lot of expectations on “a very exciting 3D eraâ€, this emerging technology still faces many bottlenecks and problems that need to be solved. Those who assert that 3D printing will completely subvert the manufacturing industry’s passionate remarks may need to calm down.
“All important technologies are overestimated in the short-term and underestimated in the long-term.†Chris Anderson, former editor-in-chief of the American “Linkage†magazine known as the “New Industrial Revolution†prophet, is very philosophical. This means that 3D printing “looks beautiful†in the long term, but at the moment it cannot be “too highâ€.
Especially for "Made in China", even if it is not too late to start in the 3D printing field, it will not lag behind in some areas. From the construction of the entire 3D printing industry chain, it is necessary to take care of the course of "remedial classes". .
"Universal manufacturing machine"?
3D printers seem to be capable of all-manufacturing capabilities and are constantly plucking people's nerves.
Cody Wilson, a 25-year-old student at Dezhou University in the United States, recently developed the world's first revolver built using 3D printing technology, which became the most “hyun†result of 3D printing technology. The printed pistol is called "liberator" and includes 16 parts made using 3D printing technology. It can use standard pistol magazines and supports bullets of different calibers.
Although experts are arguing about the social ethical issues of “printing weaponsâ€, ordinary people are only interested in wondering about this plastic “disposable†pistol that can escape the airport security search.
London's London designer Arad was less “violentâ€. The fashion enthusiast once printed vases, lamps and jewelry, and recently successfully used the selective laser sintering (SLS) technology unique to 3D printers. Sunglasses, said to be more "cool" than normal sunglasses.
A Dutch designer was more imaginative. He prepared to inject cement, stones, and sand into a 3D printer and combine the printed “single-leaf ring structure†to form a 1,000-square-meter villa.
A company called "Space Production" in the United States is working with NASA to conduct 3D printing attempts in a zero-gravity environment. Their goal is to try to make 3D printers print more delicious, space-long food products and other space products in space. This will solve the long-term flight astronauts logistical difficulties.
In Shanghai, a group of “after 80′′ opened a 3D photo studio, which can scan the customer’s overall body shape data to a computer, customize the design according to the customer’s imagination, and then use a full-color 3D printer and fine Post-manual carving. The customer created a "time picture" beyond imagination. Allegedly, in order to ensure effective results, they only accept 10 customer appointments per day.
A Hunan-based company that operates a "3D laser printer" claims that "3D printers" can reduce weight by 65%, save materials by 90%, and "print" out designs that designers want when compared to traditional processes such as mold making. Any of the complex parts can be called "universal machine".
Last month, Jingdong Mall, a well-known e-commerce company, launched its first personal 3D printer. This wonderful machine is about the same size as an oven and can print items up to 14 cubic centimeters. It takes about two hours to print a phone case.
Allegedly, this 3D printer matching ABS plastic price is 699 yuan / piece, if you want to buy a full set of printers, plus 7 colors of ABS plastic, a total price of 19892 yuan. Jingdong Mall stated that more than 20 units were pre-sold in May.
In fact, on the Taobao [microblogging] some relatively inexpensive "assembled version" 3D printer has begun to sell. A 3D printer with a price of 5200 yuan sold more than 90 pieces in 30 days. According to statistics from Taobao, the search index for the recent 3D printers has increased by 88.3%, which is a dozen times higher than the same period of last year.
In fact, the industrial use of 3D printing has more room for imagination. Prof. Wang Huaming, a materials expert at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said that the titanium alloy parts on the plane are now being manufactured using 3D printers, which will greatly save time and material costs.
Many analysts believe that even if the high-end applications of 3D printing are still only "laboratory success," but in the long term, China's large aircraft and advanced fighter manufacturing, are inseparable from the 3D printing technology.
Yuan Li, General Manager of AVIC Shenfei recently stated at a high-end manufacturing forum that the biggest feature of the aviation industry is “multi-category, small-batchâ€. Many parts and components need to be individually customized, so the manufacturing and manufacturing costs are very high. Many of the production lines on the aircraft are made by hand.
He believes that 3D printing technology does represent the trend of digitization, integration, distribution, and flexibility in the manufacturing industry. If the manufacturing accuracy and durability are up to the standards, the changes to the aviation manufacturing industry will be enormous. The immediate problem is "how to get out of the lab as soon as possible and form a batch manufacturing capability."
3D printing needs to overcome the technical bottleneck
Capital markets are always sensitive to "new concepts." Since last year, 3D printing technology has been "heat-fried", reflected in the stock market is the skyrocketing of related stocks.
In the United States, two giants of 3D printer manufacturing (Stratasys and 3D Systems, respectively) were listed on Nasdaq in the United States. In 2012, the shares of the two companies both rose 2-3 times, while the Nasdaq for the same period. The index rose only 13.63%. U.S. President Barack Obama has publicly announced that he will invest 500 million U.S. dollars in 3D printing to ensure that U.S. manufacturing returns. This obviously gave hormones to 3D concept stocks.
In China, industry analysts continue to send optimistic expectations and encourage market enthusiasm. Luo Jun, Secretary General of China 3D Printing Technology Industry Alliance, recently stated that the next three years will be a critical period for 3D printing technology, and the market size will double on an existing basis.
He predicted that China has the potential to become the world's largest 3D printing market, and that the Chinese 3D printing market may grow from about RMB 1 billion to 10 billion in the next three years.
Last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had stated that it would increase its support for the 3D printing industry. This year, the 3D printing industry was selected for the first time in the "National High-Tech Research and Development Plan (863 Program) and the National Science and Technology Support Plan 2014 Manufacturing Selection Guide for Alternative Projects" published by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
According to industry sources, China will officially launch at least 10 3D printing innovation centers in three years and develop 500 traditional enterprises into the 3D printing technology industry alliance.
These good news have long been "honored" on the stock market. For example, AVIC Heavy Machinery (15.20, -0.45, -2.88%) invested in the laser forming technology of Prof. Wang Huaming of Beihang, and was stirred up in the A-share market. At the end of last year, it once set a nearly three-fold increase, far exceeding that of similar stocks. Other 3D concept stocks are also bullish.
However, the "road to subversion" of 3D printing is still very long. Even if Luo Jun is optimistic about the industry's prospects, he stressed that 3D printing technology is generally in the "starting stage" and it will still be a long time away from large-scale application. He believes that 3D printing will not completely replace the traditional manufacturing industry. So far, “the mass production and lean production that traditional manufacturing industries are good at are precisely the short legs of 3D printing technology.â€
At the first world 3D printing technology industry conference, academician Xu Zhilei of the Chinese Academy of Engineering pointed out that the large-scale application of 3D printing technology still faces many challenges. For example, can 3D printing technology achieve the micron level that traditional machined parts need to achieve in terms of accuracy, while also producing at the same high efficiency? This is a big challenge.
He believes that the "material bottleneck" of 3D printing is mainly reflected in the high-precision, high-strength, long-term application, fatigue-resistant and other process standards, and the current 3D printing does not meet the requirements of the high-end industry.
For some people in the industry to raise the 3D printing technology to a level that “leads the new industrial revolutionâ€, Zhang Wenwu, a consultant of the 3D Printing Technology Industry Alliance and a researcher at the Ningbo Materials Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this requires a more systematic and comprehensive understanding.
He emphasized that the major premise of the "new industrial revolution" must include the new energy revolution. So far, 3D printing is only a new change in the manufacturing industry and has not been linked to a new energy revolution. “If you do not say goodbye to the energy system and economic system based on fossil fuels, the new industrial revolution will not be able to talk about it. Others are secondary.â€
In his view, 3D printing only opens a door in the field of smart manufacturing, enabling networked, distributed, and personalized production to be achieved, free from the same size of Ford's large industrial production. However, if we start a "new industrial revolution," we must also look forward to the great leapfrogging and integration of new technologies in energy, information, and materials.
China wants to integrate the 3D printing industry chain
If a single technology is promoted, if it cannot build an upstream-downstream industrial chain, its impact will be limited.
In the 3D printing technology industry conference, many people in the industry are talking about, China's own 3D printing technology still faces bottlenecks in many aspects such as raw materials and process stability, and domestic research institutions and companies engaged in 3D printing technology research and development are currently " Small and fragmented, each fighting," Industrialization of 3D printing needs a long process.
From a global perspective, China's 3D printing technology has not started late. At present, it is not even worse than the United States and other countries in a single technology field. For example, in the titanium alloy laser printing technology of the aviation industry, the team led by Prof. Wang Huaming takes the lead in the world in research and development.
Where is the gap? According to Lu Bingheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering of Xi'an Jiaotong University, American companies are involved in 3D printing technology and have strong R&D strength. At that time, China was only engaged in R&D in several universities, there was no innovation force and industrial chain, and technology research and development focused on On the equipment, there is no matching material and software, and each one is "single fight."
In addition, the government's support is not enough. In the mid-1990s, the Chinese government supported about 3 or 30 million yuan for 3D printing technology. Later, financial support was cut off. There was little investment in 3D printing technology until 2012.
Insiders quipped. “It was Obama who taught Chinese officials a lesson. The Obama administration says it wants to occupy the high end of the manufacturing industry. It is up to the Chinese people to worry about their own manufacturing industry.â€
In 2012, the U.S. government formally announced the establishment of a national additive manufacturing innovation agency to promote the development of 3D printing technology to the country’s mainstream manufacturing technologies. Then in December 2012, Su Bo, the vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, stated that he would promote the industrialization of 3D printing.
Liu Shulin, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the U.S. R&D of new technologies is mainly market-driven, and that their strategic planning is very visionary and has “conceptual leadershipâ€, such as 3D printing, smart earth, cloud education, etc., through a new technology. The promotion and dissemination can drive the change and development of the entire industry chain. Relatively speaking, China's industrial planning lacks such a big vision.
“China’s research projects are still in the stage of copying and imitation. Without enemies or rivals, we would not dare to do it. There is no project in the United States in Europe. We cannot go to R&D.†He said, “In fact, the real innovation To explore the unknown future and explore invisible things, what we need most is the concept of innovation."
From the perspective of the complete industry chain, 3D printing technology includes at least the upstream design, materials, and downstream manufacturing and marketing. Domestic manufacturers may not lag behind in the manufacturing process, but in upstream software development, design research and development, and marketing, etc. , there is a lack of "integral cooperation."
At the same time, the market for 3D printing has two major segments, civil and industrial, which are very different. For example, from the perspective of materials and specifications, a printer that prints plastic products costs only a few thousand dollars. For example, a home printer introduced by Xi'an Jiaotong University sells for only 6,800 yuan, and equipment for printing resin products costs 400,000 to 2 million yuan. The price for printing metal products is between 3.5 and 15 million yuan.
“We need the support of innovative scientific research mechanisms. Nowadays, several colleges and universities develop their own things in their respective fields. The equipment must be designed by oneself, the software must be developed by oneself, the materials must be obtained by oneself, and the process must be studied by oneself. "Professor Lu Pingheng stressed that China's 3D printing R & D institutions should have their own division of labor and complement each other.
Wang Zhonghong and other scholars from the Ministry of Industry and Economic Development of the State Council Development Research Center systematically investigated the current situation of the domestic 3D printing industry and proposed that the development of the 3D printing industry requires a perfect supplier and service provider system and market platform.
In the supplier and service provider system, include industrial design agencies, 3D digital technology providers, 3D printers and consumables providers, 3D printing equipment distributors, 3D printing service providers; the market platform includes third-party testing and verification support, financial support, E-commerce, intellectual property protection and other support.
“At present, the domestic 3D printing companies have low industrial integration, leading technical standards and development platforms have not yet been established, and technology research, development and application are still in a disorderly state.â€
They also believe that 3D printing technology needs education and training and social promotion. At present, most manufacturing companies in China have not yet accepted advanced manufacturing concepts such as “digital design†and “batch personalized productionâ€, and they lack understanding of the strategic significance of the emerging technology of 3D printing. The number of 3D printing devices purchased by ordinary companies is very limited and the scope of application is narrow.
In addition, in the teaching curriculum system of engineering disciplines such as machinery, materials, and information technology, there is a lack of necessary links related to 3D printing technology, and it still remains at the level of extracurricular interests of some students.
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