3D Printing: Applications and Impact

This assignment delves into the world of 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing. It examines the process, advantages, and various applications of 3D printing across industries. The report discusses the potential of 3D printing to revolutionize manufacturing and its impact on prototyping, product development, and even healthcare with applications like bone implants and prosthetics. The assignment emphasizes the transformative nature of this technology and its ability to reshape traditional manufacturing practices.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATICS
Introduction to Informatics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATICS
Executive Summary
The main aim or purpose of the report is to discuss the process of 3D printing, which is
also known as additive manufacturing. It is a process of developing a three dimensional object in
low cost. The report discusses the process of 3D printing as the future of AM or additive
manufacturing. The 3D printing is gradually making the process of traditional manufacturing
obsolete. The report discusses the future trends in 3D printing.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
1. Why is 3D printing more appropriately called additive manufacturing?........................3
2. Is 3D printing better suited for high or low volumes of production?..............................4
3. In what situations is 3D printing most valuable?.............................................................4
4. What do the leading research and investment firms forecast for 3D printing?...............5
5. 3D printing in making traditional manufacturing obsolete..............................................6
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................7
Works Cited.........................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
A new technology is gaining a traction that has the capability of changing the world,
which is also called 3D printing. It is a revolution in the field of emerging technology that
enhances the understanding of the long term global trends. 3D printing or additive manufacturing
is therefore promoted as the primary spark causing a revolution in the industries. This technology
helps the user is making customized products in a very low cost as it eliminates the risk of cost
penalties in manufacturing (Campbell, et al., 2011). The report discusses the connection between
3D printing and additive manufacturing. The most valuable situations of 3D printing along with
the advent of the process of 3D printing by making the different traditional manufacturing
obsolete are discussed in the following paragraphs.
1. Why is 3D printing more appropriately called additive manufacturing?
3D printing or AM is a process of manufacturing 3D solid objects making use of a digital
file. It is also known as additive manufacturing when it is used within a manufacturing setting.
Furthermore, a 3D printed object is created with the help additive process and is created by lying
down back to back or successive layers of the materials that are generally used to create an
object. The term additive is used for successive addition of the thin layers of thickness between
16 to 180 micron in order to create an object. These layers can therefore be seen as fine sliced
horizontal cross section of the object. Thus the process of 3D printing is also used for
constructing an object layer by layer. This is generally used for creating complex shapes as well.
The process of 3D printing is contrasting to the subtractive manufacturing that deals with
cutting out or hollowing a piece of metal or plastic.

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3D printing is used for producing complex shapes that uses very less materials than other
traditional manufacturing methods. For the implementation of 3D printing, a 3D model of the
element is created in the computer using CAD. A 3D model is then created and sliced into
hundreds and thousands of horizontal layers with the help of a slicing software. After the process
of slicing is completed, the 3D model can be feed into a 3D printer (Chua & Leong, 2014).
2. Is 3D printing better suited for high or low volumes of production?
3D printing is well suited for small volumes of production as it mainly deals with the
reshaping the development of product and manufacturing. The process of 3D printing is mainly
used by the designers and engineers for conceptualizing and testing the different prototypes. 3D
printing is well suited for little low volumes of the production because for a small manufacturer,
the most critical part of the product development is its tooling. 3D printing effectively removes
the need for production of tools, which in turn results in reducing time and labor. Low volume
niche opportunities are capable of fetching higher prices but are expensive to make (Weller, et
al., 2015). Therefore, 3D printing is increasingly used in this type of production that helps the
organization in developing low volume niche opportunities. Traditional manufacturing focuses
on providing a bulk manufacturing. Therefore, the cost of manufacturing low volumes is
considerably higher. The cost of product design, development, set up and assembly can be
reduced by a considerable amount with the help of 3D printing. Therefore, it is more actively
used in low volume production.
3. In what situations is 3D printing most valuable?
The 3D printing is most valuable in situations that includes manufacturing of important
objects and devices such as hearing aids. Over 90% of all the hearing aids are made through 3D

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printing which is used by different people across the world (Suchubert , et al., 2014). 3D
printing provides opportunities for faster development of ideas as this technology helps in
developing process that might have taken months to complete in a relatively lesser time.
Therefore, it is valuable in delivering time frame objects and projects. Furthermore, it is valuable
for low volume projects as it helps in saving money. The traditional manufacturing methods that
includes prototyping injection mold tools is an expensive investment in comparison to additive
manufacturing or 3D printing. Furthermore, it acts as an effective risk mitigation technique as 3D
printing allows creation of different parts or tools at much lower rates. This helps in developing a
production ready prototype as a test prototype (Gibson, et al., 2014). The redesigning of
prototype is further easier with 3D printing. Therefore, it can be said that 3D printing is most
valuable in building the imagination. 3D printing allows developing every imaginable tools. The
only requirement is drawing it virtually.
4. What do the leading research and investment firms forecast for 3D printing?
The different manufactures from the field of automotive, aerospace, discrete and medical
products are implementing 3D printing technologies and continues to dominate in the field of 3D
printing. According to the recent report and developments, 3D printing or more precisely,
additive manufacturing is gaining huge momentum that could reach a take-off point within the
next decade. According to the Ganter report 2010, the 3D printing is identified as the technology
of transformation in the field of a trigger phase of hype cycle (Campbell, et al., 2011).
Significant improvements have been found in the field of direct additive manufacture or 3 D
printing of metal components that are made in the past years. With the emergence of additive
manufacturing and 3D printing, engineers are successful in fabricating components from
titanium and different steel alloys. Therefore, it can be concluded that 3D printing revolution can

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occur at both high end and low end converging towards the middle. The one end of the
technology involves the high powered energy resources, while the other end focusses on
reducing the cost as well as the complexity of AM processes. Therefore, it can be said that, major
advances will be seen in the field of 3D printing in near future. The process of direct metal will
continue to advance as the fundamental metallurgy improves (Wong & Hernandez, 2012). The
cutting edge technology in 3D printing is expected to gain a broader acceptance and use in
industrial application as a necessary need for emergence of design and manufacturing standards.
5. 3D printing in making traditional manufacturing obsolete
3D is definitely playing a key role in making the traditional manufacturing obsolete. This
is particularly because 3D printing offers a variety of advantages over traditional manufacturing.
The process of 3D printing makes use of specialized equipment in assembling an object layer by
layer. Furthermore, the process of 3D printing does not require any special tooling, which in can
save a lot of time and money that is generally spent on tooling the production line.
The rework on a prototype design can be done relatively faster in a 3D printer, while that
of a traditional assembly would generally require a much more time to retool the line in order to
churn out different parts of the prototype, which would be a waste of both time, money, material
and labor. Therefore, on developing a prototype of a part, 3D printing has an increasing
advantage over the traditional manufacturing (Vaezi, et al., 2013).
Another reason of traditional manufacturing being received a backseat is that, 3D printing
is resource efficient as only the material that is consumed needs to pass through the extruder of
the printer used for assembling the products (Lipson & Kurman, 2013). The traditional

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manufacturing methods or injection molds generally requires the use of extra materials for filling
up the mold.
The 3D printing offers revolution in customization. In future, the 3D printing will allow
the buyers to customize a product according to their specifications (Berman, 2012). It will most
probably cover a huge part of the business in recent times. Furthermore, the 3D printed implants
would increase the quality of life for the people in the society. The incredible ability of
customization offered by 3D printing may help in better titanium bone implants, prosthetic limbs
and devices used by the dentist (Ventola, 2014). Therefore, it can be said that the 3D printing can
have a positive effect in people’s life.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that 3D printing is an emerging
technology that has an ability to print almost every object that is designable. The process of 3D
printing is also referred to as additive manufacturing because different layers are successively
added in developing a structure. The report discusses the situations in which the 3D printing is
most valuable and the future of 3D printing. Different researches proves that 3D printing is going
to bring a revolution in the field of manufacturing and is most likely to make traditional
manufacturing obsolete. The report discusses in brief the effect of 3D printing in people’s life.
3D printing is providing opportunities to the develop prototype and in manufacturing the end use
products. It is a process of developing or creating physical object from a digital design. It is
called additive manufacturing because a digital model is converted into a three dimensional
physical object by addition of material layer by layer.

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Works Cited
Berman, B., 2012. 3-D printing: The new industrial revolution. Business horizons. Business
horizons, Volume 55(2), pp. 155-162.
Campbell, T., Williams, C., Ivanova, O. & Garrett, B., 2011. Could 3D printing change the
world. Technologies, Potential, and implications of Additive manufacturing. Atlantic Council,
Washinton,DC.
Chua, C. & Leong, K., 2014. 3D PRINTING AND ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING: Principles
and Applications (with Companion Media Pack) of Rapid Prototyping.. s.l.:World Scientific
Publishing Co Inc..
Gibson, I., Rosen, D. & Stucker, B., 2014. Additive manufacturing technologies: 3D printing,
rapid prototyping, and direct digital manufacturing.. s.l.:Springer..
Lipson, H. & Kurman, M., 2013. . Fabricated: The new world of 3D printing. s.l.:John Wiley &
Sons.
Suchubert , C., Van Langeveld, M. & Donoso, L., 2014. Innovations in 3D printing: a 3D
overview from optics to organs. British journal of ophthalmalogy, Volume 98(2), pp. 159-61.
Vaezi, M., Seitz, H. & Yang, S., 2013. . A review on 3D micro-additive manufacturing
technologies. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology,, pp. 1721-
175467(5-8).
Ventola, C., 2014. Medical appliations or 3D printing: current and projected uses. Pharmacy and
Theraeurics. Volume 39(10), p. 704.

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Weller, C., Keeer, R. & Piller, F., 2015. Economic implications of 3D prnting: market structure
models in light of additive manufacturing revisited. International journal of production
economics,164, pp. 43-56.
Wong, K. & Hernandez, A., 2012. A review of additive manufacturing.. ISRN Mechanical
Engineering, 2012..