How can 3D printing technology be implemented in the field of industrial equipment manufacturing?

In recent years, 3D printing technology has gradually become a hot topic in the fields of advanced equipment manufacturing, structural design and new materials. Developed countries such as Europe and the United States have included it in their national development strategies. As early as 2015, in the "National Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) Industry Development Promotion Plan (2015-2016)", my country has clearly included 3D printing in the national strategic level. Since then, relevant departments in various regions have issued policies to promote the research and development of 3D printing technology, product manufacturing and practical applications.

The internal quality, grain structure, microstructure and performance of components manufactured using metal 3D printing technology are not affected by part size, wall thickness and position. In addition, during the 3D printing process where metal components are melted and solidified layer by layer, the metal crystallization conditions such as the melt metallurgical state, solidification cooling rate, temperature gradient and so on of the 3D printed alloy molten pool can be controlled "at will".

At the same time, metal 3D printing technology can achieve active control of the morphology, chemical composition, grain size and orientation, and microstructure of materials in different parts of parts, give full play to the performance advantages of different materials, and "design on demand" different materials by taking advantage of their strengths and weaknesses, so that specific metal material components have special properties that a single material cannot have, thereby showing better ease of use.

Take petrochemical equipment manufacturing as an example. Since 3D printing can better meet the needs of short-time, high-precision and complex components, it is adopted by more and more petrochemical industry practitioners. Specifically, petrochemical equipment developers use 3D printing technology and with the help of computers, graphic design software and other equipment and tools, they can modify the petrochemical equipment sample drawings, and can also see the three-dimensional model of the entire petrochemical equipment, and make timely improvements to the unreasonable parts.

On the assembly line, the fixtures made by 3D printing are mostly used to fix products on the pad printing industrial production line. Thanks to the advantages of customization, a structure that is more suitable for the parts can be designed. In addition, supporting parts for auxiliary processing can be designed to ensure the accuracy of the processing process. For companies that need to use fixtures, using 3D printing technology to customize fixtures of various shapes and sizes is low-cost, high-efficiency, good-effect and more suitable for the application.

3D printing tooling and inspection tools have gradually become a major focus of 3D printing in the field of industrial equipment manufacturing. In product quality inspection, if each workpiece is measured with a steel ruler or vernier caliper, the speed will be very slow, affecting the scanning efficiency. The use of inspection tools can complete the inspection work quickly and concisely, and provide a standard measurement method to obtain accurate data. Using 3D printing, the edges and corners can be processed to fit more closely, and the situation of inadequate hole structure can be avoided as much as possible, reducing the probability of workpiece deformation.

After years of development, the scale of the 3D printing market has gradually expanded. According to the Wohlers Report 2020, the product and service revenue of the global additive manufacturing (AM) industry in 2019 was US$11.867 billion (about RMB 84.2 billion), an increase of 21.2% over 2018. Compared with 2018, the growth rate has slowed down. In the future, with the continuous improvement of product manufacturing refinement and customization requirements in various industries, the application scenarios of 3D printing are expected to be further broadened, and the application value will also be diversified.

China's 3D printing market is showing a good momentum of development, gradually realizing commercialization, and the application of technical equipment in casting, medicine, product design, rapid mold manufacturing and other fields is becoming more and more in-depth, which is undoubtedly gratifying. Compared with the world, China's 3D printing market has weak core technology research and development capabilities, single material resources, scarce professional talents, and a small overall industry size. Such problems still need to be taken seriously and solved by enterprises, universities and other institutions.

Although the future development of the industry is full of opportunities and challenges, 3D printing has created new possibilities for enterprises to complete intelligent and digital transformation by producing terminal products, developing new applications, applying automated post-processing and artificial intelligence technologies. Paying attention to the upgrade of 3D printing technology and new trends in product research and development will become an active choice for enterprises in the context of the times.