Tech Stranger Than Fiction
Published on : Saturday 09-11-2019
Plant Head in Large Automotive Foundry
We are on the cusp of something incredible, says Sharad Dhumane, about the rapidly evolving technologies in the IoT era.
Within a short span of time, 3D printers have entered the industry’s game changing Resource Pool. What used to take a long time, huge amount of money, high degree of skills and was technologically very difficult, has suddenly become simple, quick and economical. To illustrate, here are a few industries using the technology.
Foundry: To keep up with the Joneses, you needed to come up with a capable design quickly. Else by the time you brought your model, an advanced model is already in the market. So earlier prototyping period of a few months simply went out of the window. Enterprising engineers used 3D printers to first make a pattern within few hours, where it took few weeks earlier. Accurate to the tee, these patterns cut out the prototyping period to only a couple of days. Some foundrymen thought even this was a bit costly and slow and came up with sand printers. So making a Sand Mould from the patterns was no longer needed.
Composites: You wanted the advantage of two mutually incompatible materials to make a part. Maybe the conductivity of copper and strength of titanium. Getting them together to make parts required someone to melt them and make blocks. Then the need to machine out these blocks to get your thin tubes. Uhh… The printers add two powders, add some bonding material and off you pick up your tube sample by evening to test it the next day.
Art: Someone has this bright idea of a Pewter memento. The problem is you need only ten pieces and yesterday! Easy stuff this. Just load the printer with your idea and you dazzle the gathering with those stupendous looking objects.
Tooth implants: Whoever suffered from toothache knows how it hurts. Getting an implant, made out in hard, non-corrosive materials took so long time. Not to speak about the money. Fitment? Silently you suffered from that slight protrusion. And here this tiny thing just looks at the tooth cavity and delivers tooth just right for you in sweet little time.
We could go on. Your two decade old car is stuck up in garage, because that bush ring is now obsolete. The printers are invading our lives fast and furious. Just connect with the press down the street.
But the story becomes even more exciting when you have another technology joining hands with it.
Machine learning
Recent strides in this area has seen some remarkable changes in the computer based tasks. Be it the IT industry, engineering, health, games and much more. The most stand-out event highlighting the jaw dropping abilities of this was recently seen when Google’s AlphaZero Chess Engine took just four hours to “learn” chess and defeated the reigning supremely powerful chess computer Stockfish in a 100 game match with the result 28 wins, 72 draws and zero loss. The HVAC simulation softwares, which take couple of hours to figure out the best match, can look forward to days of getting results in a few minutes.
In fact, the theme can be applied to most Simulation Softwares. The foundry’s Solidification Software, if run using tiny Finite Elements, takes a long time to simulate. Machine learning might accelerate the whole exercise and also learn from the inaccuracies of the existing software. Since prototyping costs in foundry industry take inordinately long time and huge cost, the benefits of machine learning can be imagined.
The Blockchain theme is in its nascent stage, but its enthusiasts already are talking about its benefits, if extended to the manufacturing process.
The Internet has been here for quite some time. But the higher net speeds, evolution of web based tools has created some practices, which were unimaginable a decade ago. I remember the excitement of receiving live information of a machine’s output round the clock on my smartphone half a decade ago. Sharing crucial information has become so fast, so alive that solving critical problems long distance is no more a dream. A person sitting in one country, doing an operation in another country was a piece of fiction. Now even a child is not amused to hear about it.
These are individual bits and pieces of emerging tools. The excitement must be similar to when the wheel was invented. Later when the wheel came together with the engine, something extraordinary emerged. Similarly when 3D Printing, Machine Learning, Blockchain and IoT come together, the resulting mixture will be phenomenally powerful. We are on the cusp of something incredible.
Reference
How blockchain can transform the manufacturing industry
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-blockchain-can-transform-the-manufacturing-industry/
Sharad Dhumane is a Metallurgist (IIT Kanpur), and worked in Automotive and Pump/Valve Foundries for three decades. The responsibilities covered Operations, Product Development and Technology. Recently he has taken to Technical Freelancing to be able to spend time in areas of his choice.
3D Printing Market worth $42.9 billion by 2025
According to the new research report ‘3D Printing Market by Offering (Service and Printer); Process (Directed Energy Deposition and Power Bed Fusion); Technology (Selective and Direct Metal Laser Sintering); Application (prototyping and part manufacturing); End users (industrial and education) and Geography – Global Forecast to 2025’, the market is expected to grow from USD 9.9 billion in 2018 to USD 42.9 billion by 2025; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 23.3% during 2019-25. Increasing adoption of 3D printing in different verticals and development of new industrial-grade 3D printing materials are the key factors fuelling the growth of this market.
Market for services is expected to account for the largest share of the 3D Printing Market by 2025. The leading position of the market for service can be attributed to its increasing demand for custom design and manufacturing. Another reason for holding the leading position is the increase in demand for desktop or personal printers from education and consumer industries.
Based on process, powder bed fusion process to grow at higher CAGR from 2019 to 2025
The market for powder bed fusion process is expected to grow at a largest CAGR from 2019 to 2025. The ability to produce complex geometries, high-feature resolution, good strength, and decent surface finish are the major drivers for the market for the powder bed fusion process. The lead time required to develop a product using this process is less than that for other processes. These process find their applications in several industries, ranging from, automotive to healthcare to industrial verticals.
Other highlights include:
- Based on technology, 3D Printing Market for selective laser sintering to grow at higher CAGR from 2019 to 2025
- 3D Printing Market for prototyping applications is expected to hold the largest share from 2019 to 2025
- 3D Printing Market for industrial vertical to grow at highest CAGR from 2019 to 2025, and
- 3D Printing Market in APAC to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period.
