Metal 3D printing not replacing machining - yet

Friday 29 Sep 2017

 
The ambitious claims of 3D printing technology to revolutionize the way we do almost anything has the potential, but the technology is not quite there yet, at least not in the near future. This is because we imagine a world made out of 3D printers. You’ll often read about how 3D printing is used to build homes, aircraft components, or even guns. But the uses are limited and aren’t always clearly defined.

You may see some of the highly inspiring, artistic yet functional objects promoted by metal 3D printing advocates, but you won’t find anyone talking about the efforts, cost, and build time that would have gone into developing that object.

There are investments happening, however, to enhance the reliability of industrial 3D printing in terms of operation and print quality. Even so, the technology is still not at a stage to replace the traditional machining processes. In fact, machining still has a long runway, and 3D printing can be seen as a good complement to it.

There are multiple reasons to actually not consider rapid prototyping as a replacement to machining. Read more.

Source: pddnet.com

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