Now a day’s consumer purchase choices are very dynamic.
Therefore, costumer oriented cost
effective manufacturing is a biggest challenge. The fascinating features of the 3D printing made
it so popular solution to this challenge. Few of the advantage are economic feasible, production
speed, ease of access, single step manufacture, risk and waste mitigation capability, creative
design freedom.
Product manufacturing process
Cpital investments can be to risky for a for new production plant. It also takes
In the last three decades additive manufacturing (AM), also called 3D printing, has gained
widespread attention in industry due to the possibility to revolutionize manufacturing [4].
AM creates an object by adding material, contrary to subtractive manufacturing processes
such as milling and drilling, which shape an object by removing material. Some of the advantages
of AM are that small batches are economically feasible, design changes can be easily
and quickly implemented, and less material is needed compared to subtractive manufacturing
methods.
AM refers to multiple techniques such as selective-laser-sintering, fused deposition modeling
(FDM), and stereolithography. Selective-laser-sintering uses a powder bed as building material
and a laser to sinter the material. After sintering one layer the powder bed is lowered
and a layer of fresh powder is deposited and smoothed out. The fused deposition modeling
process uses a thermoplast as the building material, and liquefies it to deposit layers of molten
thermoplast on top of eachother. Stereolithography uses a photopolymer which solidifies after
being exposed to ultra-violet light. The stereolithography process is schematically identical to
selective-laser-sintering, but instead of a laser, ultraviolet light is used, and instead of powder
a photopolymer. See figure 1-1.
The physical processes are different, but the idea is the same for all techniques: build a
three-dimensional object by stacking contour slices on top of each other. Arguably the greatest
benefit that AM brings to society is its customized use in the medical industry. For
example inner ear hearing aids, knee replacements, skull parts, and hip replacements can be
made using AM techniques [5] [6].
Master of Science Thesis D