Traditionally, manufacturing sector has been the largest contributor to GDP around the world. Incidentally, manufacturing also has been the largest consumer of natural resources and the biggest waste generation sector. But, the major problems of the manufacturing industry have been namely,
- Trade-off between flexibility and efficiency of the operations:
If the user requires the product to be manufactured as per their specifications, then the efficiency of the operations goes for a toss. In other words, there will be lot of material consumed for very little product, as there are no economies of scale. On the other hand, if the manufacturing needs to efficient and cost effective, then user won’t have much choice. Ever wondered, why one doesn’t have much choice in screws or any mass-produced items?
- Waste produced during manufacturing:
Another problem with run-of the mill manufacturing industry is the waste produced due to machining of raw materials. The amount of iron or copper wasted every year due to machining is tremendous. One might argue that the rejects are being recycled and repurposed, but those materials are a waste for the firm.
In recent years an answer to machinated manufacturing has emerged in the name of 3-d printing. 3-d printing is the broad term encompassing technologies under umbrella of additive manufacturing. In additive manufacturing, material is added where is it is required as opposed to machining or subtractive manufacturing where the finished product is carved out of raw material, essentially, removing unwanted material out of the finished product. While forging is a crude way of additive manufacturing, forging cannot provide the flexibility or strength of construction as 3-d printing would give.
In 3-d printing, molten raw material is poured on as per the CAD drawing creating a 3-d print of the required design. The major advantage of 3-d printing is the flexibility with which different designs can be executed with ease. 3-d printing presently is available in plastic, neoprene and even aluminium materials. It is noteworthy that companies like BMW and Mercedes Benz are using 3-d printing to reduce inventory stock and give better personalization to the customer.
3-d printing has the potential to impact the manufacturing industry as whole. Hence, it is said to be a very important part of future industry.