Industry 4.0 Managing The Digital Transformation13

Industry 4.
0: Managing
The Digital
Transformation
13. Additive Manufacturing Technologies and Applications
Up to now, prevalent method in manufacturing industry has been subtractive methods,

which they generate a product with high precision by grinding a material or cutting away it
from the block of solid material. It can be done by either manually or automatically. Most
important aspect of subtractive methods, especially automatically one, is to generate exact
shapes with high precision. However, there is another manufacturing method that may
challenge traditional subtractive methods; additive manufacturing or it may also be called 3D
printing. Additive manufacturing technique builds a product by adding layers onto other
layers using raw material.
RepRaps have the ability to produce almost all of its parts, in other words it can produce
itself. The project assisted the technology to gain importance and revolutionize rapid
prototyping, tinkering and personal manufacturing. Since the invention of additive
manufacturing, the AM technology has been used in many industrial areas such as
automotive, manufacturing, aviation, medical, jewelry.
1. Stereolithography (SL)
Stereolithography (SL) is the first developed rapid prototyping technique patented by
Charles (Chuck) W. Hull in 1986. Then 3D Sytems Inc is founded to commercialize his
patent. Working principle of SL is to solidify the photosensitive liquid polymer by using an
ultraviolet laser. 3D modeled part in CAD software converted into STL file. In STL file,
modelled part is divided into cross sections, which contains information about each layer.
The thickness of the layer defines the resolution, which is dependent on the equipment
used. A support structure is needed to build to part on. A laser beam is traces the cross-
section information provided by STL file to build the part layer by layer. When process is
completed excess liquid polymer is drained saved for reuse (Chua et al. 2010; Cooper
2001; Kruth 1991; Wong and Hernandez 2012).
2. 3DP
Three dimensional printing (3DP) is patented in 1993. In 3DP technique, polymer powder
is fused using water based liquid binder supplied from jet nozzle. Powder particles are
glued together layer by layer. Wide range of polymers can be used for this process.
Advantages of this process are; it is fast and material cost is low. On the other hand,
surface finish is rough and part size is limited.
3. Fused Deposition Modeling
In Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technique, print head liquefies the thermoplastic
material and deposits in layers on substrate. The thickness of the layers are usually 0.25
mm. The FDM technique is patented in 1992. The description of the technique was first
introduced by Crump (1991). The materials is heated just enough to make it viscous so
that it can solidify immediately. Different types of materials can be used such as, wax,
metals and ceramics. Low maintenance cost and its compact size are the positive
attributes of FDM technique. On the other hand temperature fluctuations results in
delamination and printing time is long.
3. Implant and Tissue Designing
The rapid prototyping technique is additionally used in medical prosthesis and designing
implants allowing the prostheses to be customized, unlike the standard sized ones which
are available for complying with the requirements of many surgical procedures, but not all
of them. In this sense, the need of implants that are customized lies under the presence
of patients who are not in the standard range in terms of the diseases they have or the
size of the implants they need, and more successful surgical outcomes consequently
with the fitting and meeting the needs of the body.
In addition to this technique’s benefits in reconstructing bones, the rapid prototyping can
be used for soft tissue replacement and creating tissue scaffolds for the growth of cells
as well making the future application of producing artificial organs for the patients
possible with further research.
In 30 years AM has become a viable manufacturing process from just a rapid prototyping
technique. Several companies are using AM processes for commercial purposes. Several
researches are still resuming in perfecting the AM process, which will have great impact
on society in near future. Even today AM has great impact on society in many aspects. It
revolutionaries the rapid prototyping making the design of new products easier.
Customized products can easily be manufactured using AM, which will improve health
and quality of life. Brand new technologies such as tissue engineering will help prevent
deaths from organ failing.
Decrease cost in producing healthcare products will make quality life to be affordable. AM
processes reduce waste and does not use hazardous materials such as cooling liquids,
and thus reduce pollution. AM will simply supply chain and enable JIT manufacturing,
which will greatly reduce the material handling and inventory costs.
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Industry 4.

Up to now, prevalent method in manufacturing industry has been subtractive methods,

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