How big is the impact of 3D printing on the machining industry

At present, the application field of 3D printing is still mainly based on composite materials, metal materials can not be used for 3D printing molding. But for the metal processing industry, especially the sample processing, model processing, etc. still have an impact. However, to say that to replace the traditional parts processing industry, or for is still early.

First of all, 3D printing, in the case of batch processing, its efficiency is still a problem, the cost can not be compared with the cost of traditional metal parts processing, much higher, for example, the current automatic lathe processing efficiency is very high, in the production of parts, non-printing molding comparable.

Secondly, the material, as mentioned earlier, 3D printing is mainly some composite materials to produce, with the most common steel, iron, copper, tin, stainless steel, alloy materials, etc., and can not be accomplished with 3D printing, and the cost of composites, and the application of the field are limited.

In addition, 3D printing, just for some shaped parts processing, than the traditional machine tool processing advantages, applied to the industry batch and scale production, is limited.

So, the traditional parts processing industry, only in the special molding processing, special materials processing, sample processing and other small-scale impact of 3D printing molding, in the vast majority of large-scale production areas, there is little impact.