This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.

sg)
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

The Disruptive Evolution Of 3D Printing

Panda, Biranchi; Tan, Ming Jen; Gibson, Ian; Chua, Chee Kai

2016

Panda, B., Tan, M. J., Gibson, I., & Chua, C. K. (2016). The Disruptive Evolution Of 3D
Printing. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Progress in Additive
Manufacturing (Pro‑AM 2016), 152‑157.

https://hdl.handle.net/10356/84579

© 2016 by Pro‑AM 2016 Organizers. Published by Research Publishing, Singapore

Downloaded on 13 May 2024 01:20:39 SGT

 THE DISRUPTIVE EVOLUTION OF 3D PRINTING

BIRANCHI PANDA*
Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore 639798
MING JEN TAN
Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore 639798
IAN GIBSON
School of Engineering, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment, Deakin University,
Victoria, Australia
CHEE KAI CHUA
Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore 639798

ABSTRACT: 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the promising
technologies that have served as a bridge between digital and physical domains without the need of
tooling and human intervention. Its ability to turn digital models into physical objects allows
designers to design, scan, share, and send digital representations of physical objects just as they
can images or text online. With advancement of material science, this technology has greatly
improved and now used for many more applications such as energy, healthcare, automotive and
aerospace. Considering these recent applications and rapid growth, experts believe that the 3D
printing technologies are highly disruptive and this disruption will continue through 2025. This
paper reviews the disruptive potential of 3D printing processes and discusses a recent
development, i.e. 3D concrete printing, which will hopefully bring success to building and
construction industries in the near future.

KEYWORDS: Additive manufacturing, Prototyping, Building and construction, Automation

INTRODUCTION
The emergence of advanced manufacturing technologies, coupled with consumer demands for
more customized products and services, are causing shifts in the scale and speed of manufacturing.
3D printing is one of such advanced manufacturing process technologies which conceives the
complete product by selectively adding material layer by layer as per the given CAD model
(Gibson et al., 2010). Due to significant advantages in terms of cost effectiveness, lower build
times, and flexibility this technology is finding applications in many diverse fields of the today’s
industries (Figure 1). It seems that prototyping (24.5%), product development (16.1%) and
innovation (11.1%) are the three most common concerns of the industries fueling the development
of 3D printing.

Past studies reveal that this technology was initially used by artists and designers for verifying
their concepts (concept modeling) prior to production level (so called Rapid Prototyping). It was
very much helpful for them in reducing manufacturing lead time and thus quickens the launch of

Proc. of the 2nd Intl. Conf. on Progress in Additive Manufacturing

Edited by Chee Kai Chua, Wai Yee Yeong, Ming Jen Tan, Erjia Liu and Shu Beng Tor
Copyright © 2016 by Pro-AM 2016 Organizers.
Published by Research Publishing, Singapore
ISSN: 2424-8967 152
 Proc. of the 2nd Intl. Conf. on Progress in Additive Manufacturing

products to the end-use customers. However along with advancement of material science, it has
been greatly improved in terms of dimensional accuracy, surface roughness and mechanical
properties and now used for many more applications (Section 2). According to Wohlers Report
2014, the global 3D printing market is now expected to grow from $3.07B (revenue) in 2013 to
$12.8B by 2018, and exceed $21B in worldwide revenue by 2020 (see Figure 2)

Figure 1. Reasons for pursuing 3D printing Figure 2. Global forecast for 3D printing revenue
[Source: Gartner, 2014] [Source: Wohlers Report, 2014]

3D PRINTING SYSTEMS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

The very first patent application for 3D printing was filed by a Dr Kodama, in Japan, in the late
1980’s, at which time they were called Rapid Prototyping (RP) technologies. Today there are
many varieties of 3D printing systems commercially available in the market. Among them fused
deposition modelling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), selective laser melting (SLM), selective
laser sintering (SLS), electron beam melting (EBM) and polyjet are the most widely adopted
technologies in the industries (Chua et al., 2003). In terms of materials, a variety of polymers,
metals, ceramics and composites can be used in 3D printing. The use of these materials is
dependent on the type of process used (Guo and Leu, 2013).

The first applications of 3D printers were in the area of rapid prototyping and then tooling. With
regard to prototyping, FDM is found to be the most common and cheapest process being used in
many industries. FDM uses molten thermoplastic to fabricate any complex prototypes following
the layer by layer deposition process. Starting from business model to fashion, and medical (Figure
3) today FDM is considered as a core part of many production processes due to low cost of the
material and good printing accuracy.

Along with this, due to improvements in machine performance, 3D printing technologies have
started finding their applications for direct manufacturing rather than prototyping. Certain
industries such as aerospace, automobile and military are producing small numbers of highly
complex components using SLS and SLM and simultaneously investing to improve their reliability
and applicability (Huang et al., 2013; Lyons, 2012). Both SLS and SLM are metal AM systems
where laser power can be used to sinter and melt the metal powders accordingly. The parts
produced by these processes are normally used for load bearing applications and in many cases it

153
 Chee Kai Chua, Wai Yee Yeong, Ming Jen Tan, Erjia Liu and Shu Beng Tor (Eds.)

has been proved that metal AM processes stand as an alternative manufacturing method compared
to CNC turning and milling (see Figure 4).

Figure 3. FDM made prototypes [Source: http://3dprintingindustry.com/2013/09/17/singapores-

nanyang-technological-university-constructs-30-million-am-center]

Figure 4. Automobile and Aerospace part produced by SLM process [Source:

http://www.tctmagazine.com/3D-printing-news/slm-solutions-and-eads-partner]

It is most obvious that the medical sector needs highly personalized one-off products for real time
applications. The capability of 3D printing seems to be an ideal technique to address this need.
This is exemplified by manufacturing of in-the-ear ear hearing aids which has now almost entirely
shifted to 3D printing (Sandström, 2015), whilst other applications in orthodontics, prosthetics,
orthotics, implants and replacement organs are at various stages of maturity and adoption. Recent
developments in 3D bio-printers have revolutionized the medical sector by successfully addressing
the need for tissues and organs suitable for transplantation (Murphy et al., 2014). Figure 5 shows
some of these recent applications of 3D printing for medical and tissue engineering applications.
Apart from this, very surprisingly, 3D printing has also acquired its unique position in food
industries by helping them in preparing attractive cakes and chocolate-type edible stuffs (see
Figure 6).

154
 Proc. of the 2nd Intl. Conf. on Progress in Additive Manufacturing

Figure 5. Medical application of 3D printing Figure 6. 3D printed chocolates

It can be seen from the above-mentioned applications that the 3D printing has a lot influence in
recent years and how it has been introduced as rapid prototyping in the middle of the ‘80s. It has
taken 30 years for the technology to get established and be used today for mass production (see
Figure 7). This is of course possible due to the development in the technology and material science
that are adding quality iteratively to the process. The, following section introduces some of the
recent application of 3D printing processes such as concrete printing, which aims to print
affordable construction panels in minimum build time and material wastages.

Figure 7. 3D printing adoption time line [Source: Deloitte]

CURRENT TRENDS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

In recent years, due to high emphasize on development of new materials, 3D printing technology is
spreading across different industries via enabling rapid product development with minimal or no
human intervention. MIT glass printing is one among the ground breaking technology which is
able to produce transparent glass using layer by layer deposition strategy (Klein et al., 2015).
Similarly, development of counter crafting (CC) is also a potential innovation for building and
construction (B &C) industries since it uses concrete material to build houses and construction
panels in an additive manner (Le et al., 2012). Many researchers are still working on 3D concrete
printer to improve its performance and quality during printing. 3D concrete printing works with

155
 Chee Kai Chua, Wai Yee Yeong, Ming Jen Tan, Erjia Liu and Shu Beng Tor (Eds.)

the same principle as CC, aiming at reduction of labour cost, material wastages compared with
conventional construction process. Figure 8 shows concrete printing process at Loughborough
University, UK. With global researchers working to explore the possibilities, it is believed that
there may be a promising future for concrete printing in the B&C industry.

Figure 8. Concrete printing at Loughborough University (Le et al., 2012)

More recently, European Space Agency (ESA) has explored the possibilities of building structures
on the moon via 3D printer using the local material, lunar soil. The basic idea behind this lies in
the adoption of large scale 3D printer that can use a base material whose chemical and granular
composition is very close to the ones which characterize the lunar soil (Cesaretti et al.2014). Apart
from creating building and structures, 3D concrete printer could be beneficial for architects and
industrial designers. Much more complex design can be printed with varieties of materials in order
to enhance the aesthetic features of current construction process. Figure 9 shows some the
architect potential of 3D concrete printing process which reflects evolution of 3D printing process
has indeed eliminated the shape complexity for architects and designers.

Figure 9. (a) 3D-printed bloom at UC Berkeley (b) Concrete Castle at Minnesota [Source:
http://inhabitat.com/worlds-largest-3d-printed-building-made-from-powdered-cement-unveiled-at-
uc-berkeley, http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/08/27/finally-stands-andrey-rudenkos-3d-printed-
concrete-castle]

156
 Proc. of the 2nd Intl. Conf. on Progress in Additive Manufacturing

In addition to 3D printing, in next several years, 4D printing has been considered to move from
the research and development labs into actual production roles inside of organizations that are
aggressive in their use of emerging technologies (Gladman et al., 2016). One definition of 4D
printing is the printing of objects that are capable of self-assembly when exposed to air, water or
heat due to a chemical reaction. Also advent of many hybrid AM systems that combine additive,
subtractive and formative stages will hopefully eliminate the limitations of 3d printing process and
thus making it globally a disruptive innovation for all generations.

CONCLUSION
The era of disruption in the technology industry is upon us. In 2015, we saw turbulent times in the
3D marketplace, the degree of adoption and eventually disruption will become much more
significant as the market matures and moves toward 2020. In this current years, one of the most
interesting and emerging technologies that is working in it’s evolutionary way is 3D printing.
With increasing number of applications, 3D printing is believed a disruptive innovation of this
century and this disruption will continued for a long generation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF) for
funding and support for this research project.

REFERENCES
Cesaretti, G., Dini, E., De Kestelier, X., Colla, V. and Pambaguian, L., (2014) “Building
components for an outpost on the Lunar soil by means of a novel 3D printing technology”, Acta
Astronautica, 93, 430-450
Gibson, Ian, David W. Rosen, and Brent Stucker (2010) Additive manufacturing technologies,
New York: Springer
Gladman, A.S., Matsumoto, E.A., Nuzzo, R.G., Mahadevan, L. and Lewis, J.A., (2016)
“Biomimetic 4D printing”, Nature materials.
Guo N, Leu MC, (2013) “Additive manufacturing: technology, applications and research needs”,
Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering 8(3), 215–243.
Huang SH, Liu P, Mokasdar A, Hou L, (2013) “Additive manufacturing and its societal impact: a
literature review” Int J Adv Manuf Technol 67, 1191–1203.
K. Chua, K.F. Leong, C.S. Lim, (2003) Rapid prototyping: principles and applications, 3rd ed.,
World Scientific, Singapore
Klein et al. (2015) “Additive Manufacturing of Optically Transparent Glass”, 3D Printing and
Additive Manufacturing, 2(3), 92-105
Le, T.T., Austin, S.A., Lim, S., Buswell, R.A. (2012) “Mix design and fresh properties for high-
performance printing concrete”, Materials and Structures, 45(8), 1221-1232
Mani M, Lyons KW, Gupta SK, (2014) “Sustainability Characterization for Additive
Manufacturing”, Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 119,
419–428
Murphy, Sean V., and Anthony Atala.(2014) "3D bioprinting of tissues and organs", Nature
biotechnology 32(8), 773-785.
Sandström, C. (2015) The non-disruptive emergence of an Ecosystem for 3D Printing – Insights
from the Hearing aid industry’s transition 1989-2008, Technological Forecasting & Social
Change,doi10.1016/j.techfore.2015.09.006.

157