When is 3D Printing Suitable for Production?

When is 3D printing suitable for manufacturing? When is traditional manufacturing technology suitable for use? Who will be the winner of 3D printing compared with traditional manufacturing technology? In this issue, 3D Science Valley will compare the technology of plastic parts with injection moulds by 3D printing. Let's think about these problems together.

Advantages of 3D Printing

Cost advantages of small batches

The production of plastic parts by injection moulds will result in high cost of mould manufacturing and assembly. Only when mass production is carried out, the cost of individual products can be reduced. If 3D printing technology is used, the manufacturing cost of single-piece products is almost not affected by the quantity of production. When producing small batches of products, the cost of 3D printing single-piece plastic products is lower than that of injection molding technology. What is the quantity of production when the cost is lower? The figures in the figure below can be used as a reference.

Sources: Sculpteo

The above figure compares the production of automotive door handles by injection moulds with direct 3D printing of the parts. The light blue curve represents the injection technology, and the dark blue curve represents the 3D printing technology. The abscissa represents the quantity of production and the ordinate represents the unit production cost. The number of production corresponding to the intersection of the two curves is 407. The cost of 3D printing on the left side of the intersection point is lower than that of injection technology, which means that the cost of using 3D printing technology is lower when the production quantity is less than 407 pieces, and the cost of using injection technology is lower when the production quantity is more than 407 pieces. As we can also see from the figure above, the dark blue curve is almost horizontal regardless of the quantity of production, reflecting that the cost of 3D printing technology is hardly affected by the quantity of production. The light blue curve decreases significantly with the increase of production quantity, reflecting that the larger the production quantity, the lower the cost of injection technology.

Customizable

The cost of 3D printing technology is almost unaffected by the quantity of production, so even if the design of each product is different in production, it will not affect the production cost, which brings unique advantages to the individualized and customized products of 3D printing.

Product complexity hardly affects the cost of 3D printing.

Sources: Sculpteo

In the figure above, the orange area represents injection mold technology, and the blue area represents 3D printing technology. With the increasing complexity of products to be manufactured, the production cost of injection molding technology increases gradually, while the cost of 3D printing technology changes little.

Quick access to products

To produce automotive door handle by injection technology, first of all, it need to produce injection mold. Usually it takes 15-60 days or more from mould to parts. For 3D printing, these parts can be produced at any time according to the demand, without the need to produce molds, so that the delivery time can be shortened to 2-3 days.

Reduce material waste

In traditional manufacturing technology, a large number of materials are removed in the manufacturing process, and the use of 3D printing technology to form materials layer by layer can undoubtedly reduce the waste of materials.

Convenience of product iteration

Rapid manufacturing without dies and low cost of single piece bring great convenience for product iteration. If the prototype of 3D printing products or a small number of new 3D printing products are unsatisfactory, users can improve the product design and get new products of 3D printing in a short time. And it won't cost a lot of product modification.

Advantages of Traditional Manufacturing Technology

Production of large quantities of products

As is reflected in the first chart, when the production quantity is large enough, the production cost of die technology is lower than that of 3D printing technology, so traditional manufacturing technology is more suitable for mass production of standard products.

In addition, although 3D printers do not need the time of tool change and clamping as machine tools do, the printing speed of 3D printers is still unable to compare with the speed of traditional mechanical processing technology, and the traditional technology has more advantages in the production speed of mass products.

Optional range of materials

When 3D printing is used, the range of materials available is small, and the types of products that can be manufactured will be limited, while the range of materials selected by traditional manufacturing technology is much larger.

Surface finish

The surface finish of 3D printing products can not be compared with those produced by traditional technology. Although the gap between 3D printing plastic parts and injection moulds can be narrowed by post-processing technology, products with high surface finish requirements are still more suitable for manufacturing with traditional technology.

Large size

Limited by the printing bed of 3D printer, it is difficult to print the whole large size parts at one time for 3D printing technology.