3D Manufacturing Capabilities

                With the 3D printing industry rapidly growing, the limits to 3-D manufacturing limits are constantly being redefined. 3D printing also known as additive manufacturing is “the process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital model”.  Although the idea of 3D printing began in the 1980s, the term was not officially coined until 1995, where a group of MIT students designed an inkjet printer that extruded a binding solution onto a bed of powder rather than ink onto paper. Since then, 3D printing has been a rapidly growing field because of it’s vast

                Surprisingly, although 3D printing is gearing towards new medical developments such as nano scale objects, there is a big interest in 3-D printing on a much greater scale. In fact, according to Yahoo News, “Behrokh Khoshnevis at the University of Southern California … has figured out a way to build housing with a giant 3D printer.” Yahoo might not be a credible source but this professor has been featured on different sites, and Matthew Tedesco also referenced this scientist.  Of course this would require a large scale printer, that would be bigger than the house its building, and it would build through a concrete layering system called Contour crafting. Although the method of extrusion printing we have now creates a lot of waste, 3D printing is gearing towards precision printing such as Contour crafting. Contour crafting prints objects “as is” without creating any additional waste. The professor believes that this would not only help commercial building be more efficient and less costly, but that this project can extend to even the poor slums and less fortunate societies. Being able to build a house at around 20 hours, can greatly reduce the costs for anyone and increase production rates by an unknown exponential rate.

                I believe that 3D manufacturing is essential to the future of construction and engineering, because at the current rate there’s no limits as to what we can build, and how fast we can build it.The 3D printers already exist, and it's only a matter of time before they're manufactured in a cheap commercial scale. 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/3d-printer-could-build-house-20-hours-224156687.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

http://www.explainingthefuture.com/3dprinting.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/12/07/manufacturing-the-future-10-trends-to-come-in-3d-printing/

3D Manufacturing Capabilities

3D Manufacturing, commonly known as “Addictive Manufacturing” in the professional world, according to me it is already in the main stream of manufacturing and professional world today. Also that it will main stream into the common world for all individuals within the next 2 to 5 years from now. Therefore there is no question about the future, 3d Manufacturing is already here today. “Addictive Manufacturing” can be simplified as being a process in which anything from a body tissue to a single family home can be designed on a 3D computer program then a functional realistic life size of that design can be printed as a final product. The technology of 3D manufacturing has been under exploration and research for decades and it has resulted in the creation of 3D printers for various types of materials and functions. When I was in high school few years back in 2009 I was fortunate enough to use 3D technology to print small parts such as stair cases and window frames for architectural models for class projects, so 3D printing is nothing new. Fortune 500 companies such as Boeing and General Electric are using the “Addictive Manufacturing” technology today to make complex parts out of composite materials being used in several of their final products. This technology has help create many small startup business such as ones which make custom accessories such as custom electronic housings, cases, chocolates, presents, and more in which buying a 3D printer eliminates cost of hiring workers, leasing or buying big warehouses for productions and so on. Another big impact addictive manufacturing has made is in the medicine world. Not only are these printers are able to make prosthetic such as leg and hip joints, but bio-medical engineering students across the street at University of Pennsylvania have been able to print out live blood vessel networks out of live organic materials which can be brought to life and be a crucial breakthrough for the medical world but also for human kind (upeen.edu). So far they have been able to create full organs such as a human bladder and human kidney. With such capabilities shortages at organ banks will be a thing of the past and many lives which are being lost today will be saved.

The topics mentioned above did not directly focus on architectural or the civil engineering field but as mentioned in my group members’ blog posts this innovation of 3D manufacturing can be used with materials such as concrete to develop full size architectural and civil structures as well. This can increase productivity and efficiency of projects significantly while cutting down on labor cost tremendously. 3D manufacturing is not main stream in this field as of now but with all the positive outcomes and results of research being performed at institutes such as USC it can be concluded the idea of 3D manufacturing for construction in field of architectural and civil engineering will be a common option in the next 5-10 years.

Information used in the research to compile the post above is based on credible sources listed below:

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-researchers-improve-living-tissues-3d-printed-vascular-networks-made-sugar  ;Penn Researchers Improving Livening Tissues With 3D Printed Vascular Networks Made From Sugar; Evan Lerner; July 1, 2012    

http://www.csc.com/lef/insights/92142-3d_printing_and_the_future_of_manufacturing  ; Paul Gustafson; November 29, 2012

http://additivemanufacturing.com/basics/  ; What is Additive Manufacturing; 

3D Manufacturing Capabilities

Regarding the future of 3D Manufacturing, the time span I am considering is 3, 5 and 10 years. 3-Dimensional printing is currently seen in one aspect as a hobby for individuals and is more commonly accepted as "additive manufacturing" in relation to the manufacturing industry. In the next 3 years, I expect that home hobbyist will be able to purchase and gain more experience operating cheaper and more advanced 3D printers, which can be purchased for $3,000-$4,000. Taken from the article "The Plant of the Future: 3D Manufacturing" [1], this craft will allow the hobbyist to produce objects that can be customized but are not likely to not be more than trivial decorations, tools or toys. However, in the same sense, smaller companies will have the opportunity to purchase a few of the printers and employ some skilled technicians and mechanically inclined employees that can troubleshoot small appliances, vehicles and other machines for compromised parts of which could be replaced and returned to operation. As the printers become more of a common tool in factories and their capabilities realized at the stage of early design, components will begin to be multifunctional. These multifunctional components will replace numerous parts that in the past would have to be manufactured separately and then assembled.

3D manufacturing has been experiencing a lag in use for mass production due to the high initial cost of the printers and the slow manufacturing time that is inherent to printing parts with multiple colors and material types. Until recently, printing either multiple colors or materials was completed using one print head which had to be changed in the middle of printing, while now the colors and different materials can be printed using one head with multiple ports.

Within the next 10 years, I expect 3D manufacturing to have a significant impact on the construction industry. A professor from USC has researched a method to build residential structures using additive manufacturing techniques, for which he coined the term "Contour Crafting" [2]. This method of building employs a gantry crane outfitted with nozzles that disperse concrete mixtures that can be modified regarding compression strength just as in conventional construction methods. One of the design mixes that is being used is a 10,000psi concrete, which greatly exceeds the capacity of conventional concrete used in buildings of 3,000-5,000 psi. The additive process uses exact amounts of the material to achieve the same results as conventional construction, resulting in far less waste.  The process significantly reduces the amount of human labor involved in construction, therefor lessening the required man hours and inherently the safety of workers. The construction of a residency is reduced from 6-9 months to 1 day. I believe that this type of technology will add to the types of construction methods that are available. The technology might begin to be seen in projects where human building methods are known to be especially dangerous.

I accept the information that I have found as credible because of the current 3D manufacturing products showcased at the 2013 CES. At the show, some of the products were small and compact 3D printers for the hobbyist. I have also seen the same general time-line for these manufacturing milestones mentioned in my peers blog posts. Two of the blog posts that I have read mentioned the number of years until 3D printing has a significant place in manufacturing as 5-10 years, which is consistent with what I read from the "Plant of the Future" [1] article. In addition, one of my peers also mentions the material savings and efficiency normally found in "green-building" techniques due to utilizing additive manufacturing as opposed to subtractive building as the building industry currently
employs.

[1] "Manufacturing.net." The Plant Of The Future: 3D Printing. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.

[2] Khoshnevisk, Behrokh. HOUSES OF THE FUTURE: Construction by Contour Crafting-Building Houses for Everyone. N.p.: Urban Initiative Policy Brief, Aug. 2004. PDF.

Future of 3D manufacturing

            3D manufacturing, also known as additive manufacturing is a process whose people are talking more every day. The idea of 3D manufacturing is to make a model from a digital design in a computer. This process relies on the removal of layers by methods of cutting and drilling from solid material. People are seeing the future in these machines, because since the start of the 21^st century the prices have decrease, curiosity has risen and more people are purchasing them. This new technology has grown its popularity fast, because it can be use in thousand of fields such as, automotive, aerospace, medical, architecture, construction among many others fields. One of the benefits of 3D manufacturing is that it can produce complex models precisely, while other manufacturing process can’t. The high cost and low producing speed of this manufacturing process has prevented it from expanding, but today new developments and technologies are changing this. In “The Plant Of The Future: 3D Printing” report its said that it could take from 3-5 years to start seeing 3D manufacturing in plants. With this machines becoming cheaper and popular there is bright future for them in the next 10 years. The industry will start buying and using them to create their own products.

For the building industry 3D manufacturing will have great impact. I will allow the making of complex parts that no other manufacturing process has ever made. Being able to design a model on a computer frees many constraints and allows for greater precision and complexity. This could allow new architectural designs to be produced. One of the greatest benefits 3D manufacturing offers is reduction of waste in the production process, which is a positive effect towards a green environment.

The sources use in my research are found to be considerable credible, because they all emphasize the benefits and constraints of this process. It is known that it will take some years (5-10) to reduce the cost of this process, but if master thousands of design technologies could come and many people could benefit from it.

        I agree with my classmate Mathew Tedesco that in the next 3 years we will be seeing 3D-printers at lowers prices. This will increase the sales in the market and therefore customized objects will be created, but mostly use for decorations, toys or tools. When he analyzed 3D printing in the next 10 years he believes, we will be seeing a greater impact in our industry. A professor in USC has created a method of 3D building a house in 1 day. This could be of great advances when natural disasters occur and immediate need for shelter is necessary. It going to take a little longer for this to develop but definitely 3D printing will be part of the future. 

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/the-big-story/the-rise-of-additive-manufacturing/1002560.article#ixzz2I0VV58OE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

http://www.manufacturing.net/articles/2012/12/the-plant-of-the-future-3d-printing

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/in-depth/the-big-story/the-rise-of-additive-manufacturing/1002560.article