Analysis of the Development Trend of 3D Printing Plastics under the Wave of 3D Printing

In the automotive field, the use of 3D printing technology to manufacture automotive parts on demand is becoming a trend. Daimler has so far reached 780 3D-printed automotive parts (including drawers, caps, fasteners, adapters, etc.). One of these is the car-mounted banknote storage box shown below.

On May 22, 2017, Malaysian-Machinery Airlines completed the first commercial flight of the Boeing 737 MAX8, opening a new era in the single-aisle aircraft market. On May 16, Boeing just celebrated the delivery of the aircraft in Seattle. This best-selling model has so far received more than 3,700 orders from 87 customers worldwide.

At the same time, engineers at the General Aviation Company of the United States General Electric Company ("GE") are still immersed in 3D printing technology. Just before that, the 19 fuel nozzles that they "printed" with the 3D printer were installed in the 737MAX's LEAP-1B engine. This technology represents the biggest sign of additive manufacturing (ie, 3D printing) in the aerospace industry to date. Sexual application. Too late to celebrate, they embarked on a new journey. Previously, the relevant person in charge of GE had stated that by 2020, 3D printed aero engine fuel nozzles will reach 40,000.

In the automotive field, the use of 3D printing technology to manufacture automotive parts on demand is becoming a trend. Daimler has so far reached 780 3D-printed automotive parts (including drawers, caps, fasteners, adapters, etc.). One of these is the car-mounted banknote storage box shown below.

Daimler said that adopting 3D printing technology allows them to make spare parts faster, more flexible and more economical, especially for the needs of individual customers. In contrast, the traditional injection molding process appears to be “bloated” because it not only requires the development of additional tools, but also causes a lot of material waste and stockpiling.

The 3D Printing Tide Under the "Distributed Manufacturing" Trend

Why does 3D printing have an impact on traditional manufacturing? Bram Zwart, co-founder of 3D printing technology company, cited an example of an image: “Customers customise products at a nearby 3D printing technology company and soon the company will You can print it and send it to your downstairs. Then, the factory will basically close down. Instead of putting 1,000 machines in one place, why not put 1,000 machines in 1,000 places?" HartmutSchick also stated that "3D printing is changing the way we manufacture automotive parts," and "knowing that 3D printers are usually not large, so we can easily deploy them to any factory in the world. And that gives us access to The ability to respond more quickly to customer needs has also helped us to save the costs we had to spend on parts and components.”

Bram Zwart mentioned the "Distributed Manufacturing" scenario. As early as the 2015 Davos Forum, "Distributed Manufacturing" was listed as one of the most important technological trends. According to a recent survey released by PricewaterhouseCoopers, US domestic manufacturers account for about two-thirds of the total use of 3D printing technology, which has greatly increased compared to the 35% before 2014, of which 56%. People believe that more than half of their peers will use 3D printing in the next 3-5 years. Siemens expects that the cost of 3D printing will be reduced to 50% in the next five years and the speed will be increased by five times. Consulting firm Gartner believes that although the market share of 3D printing was only US$1.6 billion (approximately RMB 11.01 billion) in 2015, this number will reach US$13.4 billion (approximately RMB 92.23 billion) by 2018.

New material development and optimization are still the main challenges for 3D printing

Despite the fact that the overly-praised speculation period has reached a relatively mature stage, the future of 3D printing technology is still full of challenges. The above PricewaterhouseCoopers report pointed out that the interviewed manufacturers stated that the obstacles in 3D printing technology are high equipment costs, lack of professionals and technology, and ultimately product quality uncertainty and printer speed. It is worth mentioning that almost the same time, manufacturers believe that the uncertainty of product quality is the biggest obstacle (47%), followed by the lack of professionals and technology, and then the cost. In addition to being affected by the stability of the processing process, the fundamental reason for the uncertainty in product quality is that existing materials cannot yet fully meet all the requirements of the 3D printing process in large-scale industrial production.

Due to the good thermal fluidity, rapid cooling adhesion, and high mechanical strength of plastic materials, rapid application and development has been achieved in the 3D printing manufacturing field. Melt-bonding properties of plastic materials gradually use resin plastics for ceramics, glass, inorganic gels, fibers, metals, etc., becoming the basic material for 3D printing. It can be foreseen that the technical development of plastic 3D printing consumables will certainly greatly contribute to the development of the 3D printing industry. In the wave of 3D printing, 3D printing materials using modified plastics as consumables will surely usher in a large number of development opportunities.

3D printing plastic types

Unlike traditional plastic materials, 3D printing technology imposes higher requirements on the properties and suitability of plastic materials. The most basic requirement is fluidity through melting, liquefaction or powderization, and solidification, polymerization, and solidification after 3D printing. Such as formed with good strength and special functionality. Plastic materials suitable for 3D printing include engineering plastics, bioplastics, thermosetting plastics, photosensitive resins and prepolymer resins, and polymer gels. Combining the industry development of modified plastics, Xiaobian will mainly introduce engineering plastics and bioplastics used in 3D printing.

Engineering plastics: Engineering plastics have a wide range of applications due to their good strength, weatherability and thermal stability, especially for the preparation of industrial products. Therefore, engineering plastics have become the most widely used 3D printing materials, especially with acrylonitrile- Butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS), polyamide (PA), polycarbonate (PC), polyphenylsulfone (PPSF), polyetheretherketone (PEEK), etc. are the most commonly used.

Bioplastics: 3D printed bioplastics are mainly polylactide (PLA), polyethylene terephthalate-1,4-cyclohexanedimethanolate (PETG), poly-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), poly - Hydroxyvalerate (PHBV), polybutylene succinate (PBS), polycaprolactone (PCL), etc., have good biodegradability. Because bioplastics have good fluidity, rapid solidification characteristics, non-blocking nozzles, environmental protection, and biocompatibility, they are well used in 3D printing manufacturing of biomedical products.

3D printed plastic modification direction

Almost all common plastics can be applied to 3D printing at present, but due to the difference in the characteristics of each plastic, the process of 3D printing and the performance of the products are affected. At present, the factors that affect the application of plastic materials to 3D printing include: high printing temperature, poor material flowability, volatile components in the working environment, and easy blocking of printing nozzles, affecting the precision of products; ordinary plastics have low strength and the scope of adaptation is too narrow. Requires reinforced treatment of plastics; poor cooling uniformity, slow set-up, easy to cause product shrinkage and deformation; lack of functional and intelligent applications. The key to the 3D printing industry is materials. As the most mature material for 3D printing, plastic materials have many problems. Due to the influence of plastic strength, the plastic materials have limited adaptation fields and the physical and mechanical properties of finished products are poor; high temperature processing and low temperature are required. Poor flow, slow curing, easy deformation, low precision; lack of plastics in the new material field. For this reason, the development of 3D printing plastic modification technology currently has the following four major directions.

1. Fluidity modification

In order to achieve the flow modification of the plastic, reference can be made to the modification using a lubricant or the like. However, the use of too much lubricant will increase the volatilization and cut the rigidity and strength of the product. Therefore, it is possible to compensate for the poor flowability of the plastic by adding a highly rigid, highly fluid spherical inorganic material such as barium sulfate and glass beads. . Powdered plastics may be coated with powdered inorganic powders such as talc powder, mica powder, etc. to increase fluidity. In addition, microspheres can be directly formed during plastic synthesis to ensure fluidity.

2. Enhanced modification

Reinforcing plastics can increase the rigidity and strength of plastics. For example, glass fibers, metal fibers, and wood fibers are used to enhance the reinforcement of ABS to make composites suitable for 3D fused deposition processes; powdered plastics are usually laser sintered and can be reinforced and modified by compounding various materials, including the addition of glass fibers. Nylon powder, carbon fiber-added nylon powder, nylon and polyether ketone blend.

3. Rapid solidification

The solidification time of plastics is closely related to the crystallinity. In order to accelerate the rapid solidification after plastic 3D fused deposition, it is possible to speed up the solidification by using a reasonable nucleating agent to speed up the solidification of the plastic, or by compounding metals of different heat capacity in the plastic material to accelerate the solidification rate.

4. Functionalization

The use of plastic materials for 3D printing has limited application in some areas due to the special nature of the material. However, if plastics are given some functions, it will greatly expand the application of plastics in the field of 3D printing and manufacturing. For example, traditional functional plastic products are usually mixed with functional materials during processing. However, because of the special nature of functional materials, the processing technology and processing equipment are required to be extremely high. Some functional materials cannot even be directly added to plastic due to limitations of their own thermal properties. . In particular, some complex devices, conductive materials, temperature control materials, and deformation memory materials used in biomedical applications are difficult to meet with the requirements of traditional manufacturing methods. By selecting 3D print molding, not only smart materials with complex shapes can be obtained, but also composite materials can be used to fill functional materials directly into plastic during 3D printing.

Such as electromagnetic fields, temperature fields, humidity, light, pH and other sensitive materials through the 3D printing for plastics to obtain smart materials; the use of organic polymers to bond metal powders to produce alloys with shape memory function; in the field of biological medicine, the use of 3D The printing technology prepared a double-pipe polylactide/β-tricalcium phosphate bioceramic composite scaffold with a controlled porous structure, and the mechanical properties were significantly enhanced. The University of Warwick in the United Kingdom has developed a new type of conductive plastic composite material. The most important feature of this material is that it allows people to print electronic products that meet their wishes, thereby reducing unnecessary electronic waste. In addition, plastics can be used to make high-molecular photovoltaic materials, high-molecular photovoltaic materials, and high-molecular energy storage materials through functionalized 3D technologies.

The trend of 3D printing plastics

Due to the inherent strength of plastics, the application of plastic materials in 3D printing is currently limited to common products. However, with the development of 3D printing technology, the performance of traditional plastics has been greatly improved, relying on the strong rapid melt deposition and low temperature adhesive properties of plastics will be widely applied to 3D printing manufacturing. In addition to plastic itself, 3D printing of products such as glass, ceramics, inorganic powders, metals, and the like can be achieved by relying on the adhesive properties of plastics. Plastic materials will develop to high strength. By increasing the strength of modified plastics, they can be used to directly replace metals for various types of complex components. They are cheap and lightweight, and can even replace glass, ceramics, and other products, so that plastic materials are 3D manufacturing is widely used.

In addition, plastic materials can avoid low-strength imperfections, progress toward compounding and functionalization, and in particular, realize multi-material composites, thereby giving plastics specific functions. Through 3D printing technology, new materials such as smart materials, optoelectronic polymer materials, photothermal polymer materials, photovoltaic polymer materials, and energy storage polymer materials can be manufactured. Using the biocompatibility of bioplastics, it can be developed into medical human tissues. 3D printing has a huge space in cells, soft tissues, organs, and bones, and has unique advantages in tissue engineering applications. In the next 10 to 20 years, the modified plastic materials will still be the mainstream material for 3D printing and will achieve a leapfrog development in the wave of 3D printing.

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