Posted on 05/29/2016 10:09:31 AM PDT by Haddit
We know that 3D printing will disrupt manufacturing and the international supply chain, but nobody seems to know how yet. Now a paper from the Business School at Lingman Normal University in Zhanjiang has tried to separate the wood from the trees.
The general consensus is that 3D printing is going to have a profound effect. The concept of mass producing goods half way around the world and then shipping them is inherently inefficient. UPS clearly agrees, as it is investing heavily in 3D printing centers throughout the US that can produce goods on demand for local delivery.
So even the big players are panicking, but what will actually happen? There are theories that much of the labor market could actually be wiped out and logistics will become a casualty of the digital era. This doesn’t take into account our natural capacity to adapt, though, and the fact that we have been here before.
(Excerpt) Read more at 3dprintingindustry.com ...
Suspect the materials and design are altered relative to a traditional process of manufacture of a part fulfilling the design requirements.
Printing usually cuts time-to-availability in exchange for more expensive materials to achieve a functional goal. Some aerospace applications substantially cut time to manufacture and achieved a 10-15% reduction in weight.
The fuel injection nozzle plate for a rocket engine was created in less than 4 months by printing, versus a year plus quote from traditional manufacturing sources.
http://heroicrelics.org/info/f-1/f-1-injector.html
Turbopumps!
You may want to do a little more reading.
Many saw this age of human unemployment coming ages ago. Technology is going to replace most humans from work. Money will be scarce to too many and become useless to production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance
After the black plague, Europeans found themselves richer. Some inherited land, food and necessities became less expensive.
“Some Marxist historians prefer to describe the Renaissance in material terms, holding the view that the changes in art, literature, and philosophy were part of a general economic trend from feudalism towards capitalism, resulting in a bourgeois class with leisure time to devote to the arts.”
Yup. Heard of alphagraphics. They’ve been around for almost 50 years. About as long as cassette tapes and VHS movies. We don’t much use those anymore, either. Something new, better, and more profitable came along to replace them.
Such will be the way with 3D printing. So the economy will shift to design and delivery of specialized raw materials. Folks who used to slog away in factories will be doing other work. Although probably less work. And their quality of life will be orders of magnitude better than 1if they had lived 00 years ago.
I continue to be very interested in 3D printers and CNC Router/Milling machines. Before I got hired by a fire department I worked for 8 years in a family owned lumber remanufacturing plant as a millwright keeping a bunch of 70 year old machinery turning rough wood into finished products such as siding, paneling, flooring, etc... I was trained by some old timers and managed to pick up quite a few skills.
Most people who have worked in a manufacturing job understand that the set-up is a critical and time consuming phase of production. People were always wanting us to run a couple thousand feet of this or that, but we really couldn’t economically do much less than a semi-truck load of anything other than cutting up wood with our rip saw or re-saw. Anything that required changing the set-up on one of our moulders wasn’t usually worth it for smaller quantities. We ran millions of feet of bevel and channel siding. That was our bread and butter.
We did have one small moulder where the heads ran at very high speed and I only had to grind up one knife and then make a counter balance, but that was a specialty machine. Its maximum feed speed was about 30 feet per minute and we could run the bigger machines several times faster. The setup time even on that machine meant that it wasn’t worth doing anything less than at least several thousand lineal feet of lumber at a much higher price per lineal foot.
I love the idea of using machines controlled by computers as a hobby and possibly as some type of niche small business. But when you are looking at up to several hours to make a small object out of expensive plastic filament, I am not seeing this as being much of a threat to traditional manufacturing.
Well, it will make it possible to make replacement parts for household items by starting the printer before going to work and coming home to the part all ready for attachment. 3D scanners already exist for working up the CAD.
I am sure that you know what consumer quality 3D Printers are currently capable of more than I do.
I recently purchased a used carpet cleaner at the Goodwill. I had to pay $30 with shipping for the parts I needed to get it going. It probably would have been possible to make a few of the parts with a 3D Printer, but I am not sure how much trouble it would have been and if the parts would have been durable enough to actually hold up. The originals broke and they were designed by people who knew what they were doing. There is sometimes more than just making a plastic part the same shape as the original involved in making a replacement.
Keep in mind that filament goes bad if not stored properly. Keep it in vacuum-sealed baggies until needed. Otherwise, it will absorb moisture in the air, leading to jams in the printing nozzles as the moisture heats and pops. Especially true for nylon filaments (my favorite for printing strong durable items).
I do not have the ability but I can see the uses of this such as fixing the annoying door handle on my Honda Accord that has sharp plastic chrome ‘paint’ ($10 at Amazon) or the arm rest with the splintered top that cost me $130 to replace (part cost, I installed it).
The door handle is complex with several parts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OHtTza3Ob0 Amazing it cost less then $10. Only if the part is rare can I see the benefit other then it is cool to do.
Maybe build toy parts like for a drone. They crash or get shot out of the sky all the time.
The comments are interesting.
pittanceSmack-Fu Master, in training
I’m on the second year of a printed replacement drive pulley for my lawnmower (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:780471)
SpaceX uses 3D printers to make metal rocket engine parts that couldn’t be made any other way.
Rocket engines have turbine blades that turn at thousands or rpm. Much faster than any jet engine and at more extreme temperatures and higher psi.
But what other work? That’s the problem. 3D printers are fast approaching a situation where the entire retail chain is unnecessary. Once they have the technical capabilities at the price point we’ll all have one at home, and with that home 3D printer we’ll print most of our basic stuff: clothes, cookware, dinnerware, tools, hardware.
Alphagraphics went from thousands maybe even tens of thousands of locations world wide to 260 because they became technologically redundant. How are things going to work when the entire retail sector becomes technologically redundant. Because remember that’s not just the stores, that’s the whole supply chain. It takes well over a dozen people to get you a shirt, and once you can print your shirts at home what are we going to do with those people? That’s the big question here.
Technology let’s us have a higher standard of living with less effort. Previously that always opened up more jobs. This one has a good chance of not opening up new jobs. It can still improve our standard of living, but we’re going to have to figure out what to do when we quite simply don’t need most people to do anything to get this standard.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.