All it takes is an idea, some materials, and a 3D printer to turn everything in your head into a physical entity. In principle, it can print a car, a house, an arm, or even a piece of pork. This fast-growing technology in Europe and the United States has been listed by the U.S. "Time" as "the United States of America's top ten fastest-growing industries," and the British "Economist" magazine believes that it will "with other digital production models to promote the realization of the third industrial revolution.
"Whatever you think of, just make it with 3D software and input it into a 3D printer to turn it into a solid." Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. product sales director Li Xiaohong to the reporter described the 3D printer, is a "or will be omnipotent" products.
It is understood that the magic of 3D printers (3D Printers) originated in the military "rapid prototyping" technology, is a CAD (computer-aided design) through the molding equipment in order to make a physical model of the material cumulative way of technology. The principle of operation is similar to that of traditional printers in many ways, and it is equipped with melted nylon powder and halogen lamps that allow the user to download patterns. Unlike traditional printers, instead of paper, powder is printed. When printing, it divides the design into a number of thin layers, generating one layer at a time from the raw material, and then "molding" the design by stacking the layers one on top of the other.
The magic of 3D printing technology is that it can automatically, quickly, directly and accurately transform the design in the computer into a model, or even directly manufacture parts or molds, no longer need traditional tools, jigs and machine tools, you can create any shape, small products can be completed in half a day.
"3D printers are the third industrial revolution is the most iconic a production tool, this digital manufacturing and new energy, the Internet and other constitute the third industrial revolution", the State Council Counselor, Youcheng Foundation Executive Vice President Tang Min said. It will replace the traditional manufacturing industry used a variety of traditional processing machinery, subversive change in manufacturing production methods, the most important feature is that does not require large-scale assembly line manufacturing.
In fact, 3D printing technology in Europe and the United States has been decades of history, entered China in 2002, after several years of shuffling and promotion of the industry, in Hong Kong, Guangdong has a certain degree of awareness in the toy manufacturing, medical equipment, industrial design, electronics manufacturing and other industries have been applied, but Li Xiaohong frankly, in the promotion of the technology found that many places on the technology to understand or very little.
3D printers are not only fun, but also really useful. Jiangmen Andi Sanitary Ware Co., Ltd. has saved a lot of time and cost through 3D printers. Before, the company's model are made by the machine tool, time-consuming, not to mention, not suitable to be pushed back never, and the 3D printer can be molded at once the whole sample, faucet model of each precise buckle position with the combination of the key position of the degree of cooperation is very high, and the designer will be able to operate on their own to greatly shorten the research and development cycle, and at the same time to reduce the cost of production of sanitary ware model. Andy bathroom responsible person said, 3D printer greatly promote the progress of new product development, while increasing the confidentiality of new products in the research and development stage, so that product development to production can be completed independently.
Li Xiaohong said that the training to operate the 3D printer can be completed in half an hour. This means that 3D printers can be operated by ordinary people. But he also said that the current application has not yet reached the level of mass, because in the different models of 3D printers produced by his company, the cheapest is also more than 100,000 yuan, "for the design of the higher frequency of enterprise comparison value, can shorten the research and development cycle, improve the quality of the product, save the cost of research and development."
The country's largest seller of 3D printers flash casting Technology Co., Ltd. general manager Chen Zhengzheng introduced to the reporter said, 3D printer users need to install Proeug, Rhinoceros and other software modeling, if you do not know how to operate these software then the machine application will be much smaller, can only be used through the download of the appropriate file. "Although the difficulty is not very large, but and learning Photoshop a reason, it is easy to get started, but with good there is a certain degree of difficulty."
At present, more than a dozen colleges and universities in Guangdong, including Sun Yat-sen University and Jinan University, have bought 3D printers. This is good news for industrial design students. They can turn their designs into products in the design room, adjustments and improvements at any time, some students are thanks to the 3D fast and convenient, with 3D printer products to participate in the Guangdong Province, "Governor" Cup Industrial Design Competition.
The reason why 3D printers are known as the "third industrial revolution" is that the popularity of this technology will make the labor directly engaged in the production of the labor force will continue to decline rapidly, the labor force accounted for the proportion of the total cost of the entire production will become smaller and smaller, and at the same time, this new process can meet the personalization, customization of the Various requirements. For 3D printers, whether it is mass production costs, or one by one different production, the cost is the same.
The Guangzhou Institute of Electronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been able to produce 3D printers, Tsinghua University is also conducting related research. The reporter found in a domestic shopping website can already buy cheap 3D printer, the price ranging from 3000 to 5000 yuan, and is equipped with a quick start guide, the corresponding software download, machine correction and other introductions. But this 3D printer exactly how the function is unknown.