IMPACT AND APPLICATION OF 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

Y.PRADEEP1 T.DIIEEP KUMAR2 V.VAMSI3 D.VANKATARAMANAIAH4 CH.V.S.PARAMESWARA RAO5

1, 2, 3
B.Tech Students, 4Asst. Professor. 5 Professor and principal.
1, 2,3,4,5
Department of Mechanical Engineering,Narayana engineering college,Gudur-524101, India.

Pradeeprocks770@gmail.com,venkat.mec337@gmail.com,cprao66@yahoo.co.in.

ABSTRACT machining techniques rely on the removal of material

by methods such as cutting or drilling whereas 3D
3D printing or Additive Manufacturing, a means of
printing layers are added successively. Thus it uses a
total automation, is a part of the new industrial
layer ring technique where an object is constructed
revolution. This technology has gained significant
layer by layer until the complete object is
attention in all the manufacturing industries
manufactured. In this way 3D printing moves us
throughout the world in the last few decades.
away from the mass production line to a one-off
Considering the adoption of automation, the
customizable production. You can literally make any
construction industry is not lagging behind in
object from a house to a bar of chocolate, so to say.
adopting 3D printing. Automation in construction by
The initial 3D printers were used in the 1980s where
the use of a 3D printer shall increase architectural
a pattern submerged in a liquid polymer would be
freedom, balances the labor dependency, decreases
traced by a computer. The traced pattern hardened
the time & cost over runs and shall also help in the
into a layer, thanks to the laser, and that was how you
adoption of Building Information Modeling. Fused
built an object out of plastic. Since then tremendous
Deposition Modeling (FDM) is an Additive
progress has been made in additive manufacturing
Manufacturing Technology for printing 3D objects
such that material extrusion is now used. By this
layer by layer. The main purpose of the research is to
method, an object is built out of matter that is pushed
develop a low cost rapid proto type using easily
from a mechanical head like the way an inkjet
available materials. Initially we designed our college
printers extrudes ink onto paper. Interestingly, the
building completely in 3D Modeling Software CAD
cost of acquiring 3D printers has been decreasing
and analyzed each part and selected readily available
with the advancement of technology. Domestic usage
material appropriately so as to develop a cost
of 3D printers has been on the rise with the average
effective model.
cost ranging from a few hundreds of dollars going up.
Key words: AM, FDM, PLA, ABS, and CAD. However, one major drawback is that it requires
expertise to print 3D objects. In fact, it requires a
INTRODUCTION competent person to make both the digital file and the
final printing. Commercial usage of 3D printers has
3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of
been on the increase too in sectors such as the
making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually
automotive industry and aerospace engineering.
any shape from a digital model. Successive layers of
Spare parts, for example, are being made in the
material are laid down in different shapes. Traditional
automotive and aero-space industry leading to
improved economies of scale. 3D printing is
changing how the production line in industries works
which made some analysts to dub the emergence of
3D printers as the second Industrial revolution.
How it works
As shown in figure 1, 3D printing starts by making a
virtual design of the object you want to create. The
virtual design is used as a template of the physical
object to be created. This virtual design can be made
using a 3D modelling program such as CAD
(Computer Aided Design) to create a design from
scratch. Alternatively a 3D scanner can be used for
an existing object. This scanner makes a 3D digital
copy of an object and puts it into a 3D modelling
program. For consumer level additive manufacturing,
currently two main techniques to 3D print objects:
Fused Deposition Modelling and Stereo lithography.
Both processes add material, layer by layer, to create
an object’s. Stereo lithography (SLA) uses a Ultra-
Violet light source to particular cure resin while
Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) extrudes semi-
liquid plastic in a required layout to create objects.
The fast growth of this technology has allowed great
inventions and 3D printing (mainly Fused Deposition
Modelling or FDM technique) reduced the cost of
manufacturing, the build time, and the weight of the
object, reduction of waste compared to some
traditional manufacturing processes therefore making
3D printings attainable to the average consumer
(Figure 1) shows the graph of manufacturing cost
reduction [3-4] and days consumption in 3D printer
comparison to the traditional manufacturing
techniques. This technology has been substantially
improved and has evolved into a useful tool for many
fields like researchers, manufacturers, designers,
engineers and scientists. Collaborating different
fields in single package formed 3D printer as it
includes Design, manufacturing, electronics,
materials and business.3D printing is the process of
creating an object with material layer by layer in
three dimension formations. The difference between
traditional manufacturing and 3D printing is that the
3d printer involves additive approach but most of the
traditional manufacturing processes involve
subtractive approach that includes a combination of
grinding, bending, forging, and moulding, cutting,
gluing, welding and assembling. At the beginning 3D
printing was mostly seen as a tool to shape and bring
it to the artistic or different designs, but in the last
few years this technology is developing to a point
where mechanical components and some required
parts can be printed.
The model is then sliced into hundreds or thousands
of horizontal layers in preparation for printing. This
prepared file is thus uploaded in the 3D printer,
which will see the printer creating the object layer by
layer. Additive manufacturing processes demonstrate
significant potential for a revolutionary, rapid, art-to-
part capability for making high-value, complex, and
individually-customized parts. Additive processes • Expensive equipment required
promise the ability to manufacture parts that are
• Long processing times
difficult or impossible to make with conventional
manufacturing techniques, e.g., parts with complex • Technology speciőc designs required
geometries, engineered porosity, or lattice structures.
However, widespread adoption of additive processes • Reduced material strength and quality,

is currently hindered by deficiencies in part accuracy, compared to traditionallymanufactured parts

surface finish, materials and material properties,

LITERATURE REVIEW
process speed, and standards. Manufacturing a test
artifact enables a composite test since most errors
Charles W. (Chuck) Hull is generally credited
present in the machine and the process contribute to
with developing the first working robotic 3D
errors in the part. The disadvantage of composite
printer in 1984, 3D printing has been changing
tests is that linking specific part errors to specific
the manufacturing and prototyping industries
machine or process error sources is often difficult.
since the late 1980’s, but it wasn’t until 2009 that
However, the advantages of test artifacts are that
“desktop” 3D printers were readily available to
producing parts is directly aligned with the actual
the public.. A desktop 3D printer is industry
purpose of the machine and specialized measuring
jargon for a smaller, less expensive 3D printer
equipment is typically not necessary since the
that a typical consumer can buy. S. Scott and
required equipment is already commonly available in
Lisa Crump patented fused deposition modelling
discrete part manufacturing environments.
(FDM) in 1989 and co-founded the printer
manufacturer Stratasys, Ltd. This technology
Advantages of AM
(more generically called FFF, for fused filament
• Enables mass customisation (MC) (Individual) fabrication) feeds a plastic filament into a heated
extruder and then precisely lays down the
• Low ramp-up time (Rapid)
material. When key patents expired in 2005, this
• Reduced wastage material (Sustainable) technology became the basis of the RepRap
movement.
• Large range of geometric features possible
(Versatile) Bowyer published the designs for the parts for
his 3D printers and encouraged others to
• Integrated components without assembly
improve them and in-turn post to improve
(Efficient)
versions. He called this source concept, the

• Production on demand (Flexible) RepRep project and obtained some initial

Disadvantages of AM
• More expensive than traditional manufacturing
(mass-production), per unit
funding from the UK’s Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Bowyer’s
team called their first printer as Darwin (released
in March 2007) and the next as Mendel (released
in 2009). Since 2010, 3D printer technology has
 shown explosive growth with the help of the
open source and DIY communities. It was
superseded by the Maker Bot Thing-O-Matic in
2010. These were mostly made of laser cut
wooden parts with some 3D-printed parts (plus,
of course, motors and electronics). Eventually,
Maker Bot became one of the earlier commercial
consumer printer companies and was purchased
by Stratasys in 2013. The Fused Deposition
Manufacturing Technology is the mostly
available and comparably less expensive. It is
verted to a Stereo-lithographic file which is in
(.STL) .This files breaks down the surface into
logical series of triangles which represents a part Figure:3.2.1 CV Raman Block Ground Floor

of the surface of a 3D model that is then used for

the slicing algorithm. The STL file slices the
model into thin cross-sectional layers that
allowed the required model to be 3D printed.

Step 1: Design and printing process

There are various steps involved in the process of
printing of a part or model using a 3D Printer. here
all the steps involved in the printing process in our
3D Printer are explained in detail.

The first and foremost step in the process of 3d

Printing is to design the part or model to be Printed in
any of the 3D Modelling Softwares such as
AutoCAD Pro-E , Catia , Solidworks…etc. Figure:3.2.2 Sarvepalli Radha Krishnan Block
Middle Floor
 In our case we had used AutoCAD 3D
Modelling Software to design a part for
example in this case a rectangular with a
circular cut in between.
 Required dimensions for the part to be
printed is decided in the design stage for
example the height of this rectangular is
4.2mm
 Figure:3.2.3 APJ Abdul kalam Block Ground Floor

STEP 2: Saving the Design in .STL

format

 The designed file is saved as .STL format

(Stereo Lithography).This file format is
supported by many software packages; it is
widely used for rapid prototyping, 3D
printing and computer-aided manufacturing.
 An STL file describes a raw unstructured
triangulated surface by the unit normal and AFTER PRINTING
vertices (ordered by the right-hand rule) of
the triangles using a three dimensional
Cartesian coordinate system.
CONCLUSION
The intention behind this research was to develop a
low cost 3D Printer by using materials which are
easily available and cost effective. We have been
successful in reducing the cost to a considerable
extent i.e..about 10-15 %. The parts made in 3D
design software are successfully imported in the
printing software and the product obtained has the
same dimension given during the design stage of the
product i.e. an accuracy close to 100%.We were able
to successfully fabricate the 3D printer according to
its virtual design proposed at reduced cost.
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