The leading countries of the world are actively involved in the 3D race. For example, in 2012, the National Innovation Institute for Additive Manufacturing (NAMII) opened in Youngston, Ohio, the first out of fifteen centers for additive technologies being created in the United States. The machine park of the institute already has 10 additive machines, three of which are state-of-the-art machines for creating metal parts.

Terminology and classification

The essence of additive technologies is to combine materials to create objects from 3D model data layer by layer. In this they differ from conventional subtractive production technologies, which involve mechanical processing - the removal of a substance from a workpiece.

Additive technologies are classified:

• according to the materials used (liquid, bulk, polymer, metal powder);
• by the presence of a laser;
• according to the method of fixing the construction layer (thermal exposure, irradiation with ultraviolet or visible light, binder composition);
• according to the method of formation of the layer.

There are two ways to form a layer. The first one is that the powder material is first poured onto the platform, distributed with a roller or a knife to create an even layer of material of a given thickness. There is a selective processing of the powder with a laser or another method of connecting the powder particles (melting or gluing) according to the current section of the CAD model. The plane of construction is unchanged, and part of the powder remains untouched. This method is called selective synthesis, as well as selective laser sintering, if the joining tool is a laser. The second method consists in the direct deposition of the material at the point of energy supply.

The industry standard organization ASTM divides 3D additive technologies into 7 categories.

1. Material extrusion. A paste-like material, which is a mixture of binder and metal powder, is fed to the construction point through a heated extruder. The constructed raw model is placed in an oven in order to remove the binder and sinter the powder - just as it happens in traditional technologies. This additive technology is implemented under the brands MJS (Multiphase Jet Solidification), FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling), FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication).
2. Splashing material. For example, in Polyjet technology, wax or photopolymer is fed through a multi-jet head to the construction point. This additive technology is also called Multi jetting Material.
3. Binder splashing. These include jet Ink-Jet technologies for injecting into the construction zone not a model material, but a binding agent (ExOne additive manufacturing technology).
4. Sheet bonding is a polymer film, metal foil, paper sheets, etc. It is used, for example, in Fabrisonic ultrasonic additive manufacturing technology. Thin metal plates are ultrasonically welded, after which excess metal is removed by milling. Additive technology is used here in combination with subtractive.
5. Photopolymerization in the bath. The technology uses liquid modeling materials - photopolymer resins. An example is the SLA technology of 3D Systems and the DLP technology of Envisiontec, Digital Light Procession.
6. Melting material in a pre-formed layer. It is used in SLS technologies that use a laser or a thermal head (SHS from Blueprinter) as an energy source.
7. Direct supply of energy to the place of construction. The material and energy for its melting enter the construction point at the same time. As a working body, a head is used, equipped with a system for supplying energy and material. The energy comes in the form of a concentrated electron beam (Sciaky) or a laser beam (POM, Optomec,). Sometimes the head is mounted on the "arm" of the robot.

This classification speaks much more about the intricacies of additive technologies than the previous ones.

Applications

The market of additive technologies in the dynamics of development is ahead of other industries. Its average annual growth is estimated at 27% and, according to IDC, will be $26.7 billion by 2019 compared to $11 billion in 2015.

However, the AT market has yet to unleash the untapped potential in consumer goods production. Up to 10% of the company's funds from the cost of producing a product is spent on its prototyping. And many companies have already occupied this segment of the market. But the other 90% goes into manufacturing, so making quick-to-make apps will be the industry's main focus in the future.

In 2014, the share of rapid prototyping in the market of additive technologies, although it decreased, remained the largest - 35%, the share of rapid production grew and reached 31%, the share in the creation of tools remained at 25%, the rest was accounted for by research and education.

By sectors of the economy, the use of AT technologies was distributed as follows:

• 21% - production of consumer goods and electronics;
• 20% - automotive industry;
• 15% - medicine, including dentistry;
• 12% - aircraft industry and space industry;
• 11% - production of means of production;
• 8% - military equipment;
• 8% - education;
• 3% - construction.

Amateurs and professionals

The AT technology market is divided into amateur and professional. The hobby market includes 3D printers and their maintenance, which includes service, consumables, software, and is designed for individual enthusiasts, the field of education and the visualization of ideas and facilitating communication at the initial stage of new business development.

Professional 3D printers are expensive and suitable for extended reproduction. They have a large construction area, productivity, accuracy, reliability, and an expanded range of model materials. These machines are an order of magnitude more complex and require the development of special skills in working with the devices themselves, with model materials and software. As a rule, a specialist in additive technologies with a higher technical education becomes the operator of a professional machine.

Additive technologies in 2015

According to the Wohlers Report 2015, between 1988 and 2014, 79,602 industrial 3D printers were installed worldwide. At the same time, 38.1% of devices worth more than 5 thousand US dollars are in the United States, 9.3% - in Japan, 9.2% - in China, and 8.7% - in Germany. The rest of the world is far behind the leaders. From 2007 to 2014, annual sales of desktop printers grew from 66 units to 139,584 units. In 2014, 91.6% of sales came from desktop 3D printers and 8.4% from industrial AM machines, which, however, accounted for 86.6% of the total, or $1.12 billion in sales. in absolute terms. Desktop machines were content with 173.2 million US dollars and 13.4%. In 2016, sales are expected to grow to 7.3 billion US dollars, in 2018 - 12.7 billion, in 2020 the market will reach 21.2 billion dollars.

According to Wohlers, FDM technology is prevalent, with about 300 brands worldwide, with new modifications added daily. Some of them are only sold locally, so it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find information on the number of brands of 3D printers produced. We can say with confidence that their number on the market is increasing every day. There is a great variety in sizes and applied technologies. For example, the Berlin company BigRep produces a huge FDM printer called the BigRep ONE.2 at a price of 36 thousand euros, capable of printing objects up to 900 x 1055 x 1100 mm in size with a resolution of 100-1000 microns, two extruders and the ability to use different materials.

Industry - for

The aviation industry is heavily investing in additive manufacturing. The use of additive technologies will reduce the consumption of materials spent on the manufacture of parts by 10 times. GE Aviation is expected to produce 40,000 nozzles annually. And by 2018, Airbus is going to print up to 30 tons of parts per month. The company notes a significant improvement in the characteristics of parts produced in this way compared to the traditional one. It turned out that the bracket, which was designed for a load of 2.3 tons, can actually withstand a load of up to 14 tons while reducing its weight by half. In addition, the company prints aluminum sheet parts and fuel connectors. Airbus aircraft have 60,000 parts printed on Stratasys' Fortus 3D printers. Other companies in the aerospace industry are also using additive manufacturing technologies. Among them: Bell Helicopter, BAE Systems, Bombardier, Boeing, Embraer, Honeywell Aerospace, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce and SpaceX.

Digital additive technologies are already being used in the production of a variety of consumer products. Materialize, an additive manufacturing services company, is partnering with Hoet Eyeware to make eyeglasses and sunglasses. 3D models are provided by many cloud services. 3D Warehouse and Sketchup alone offer 2.7 million samples. The fashion industry is not left out. RS Print uses a system that measures sole pressure to print customized insoles. Designers are experimenting with bikinis, shoes and dresses.

Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping is the creation of a product prototype in the shortest possible time. It is among the main applications of additive manufacturing technologies. A prototype is a prototype of a product, necessary for optimizing the shape of a part, evaluating its ergonomics, checking the possibility of assembly and the correctness of layout solutions. This is why reducing the lead time for a part can significantly reduce development time. Also, the prototype can be a model designed to conduct aero- and hydrodynamic tests or verify the functionality of parts of the body of household and medical equipment. Many prototypes are created as exploratory design models with nuances in configuration, paint colors, etc. Inexpensive 3D printers are used for rapid prototyping.

Fast production

Additive technologies in industry have great prospects. Small-scale production of products with complex geometry and from specific materials is common in shipbuilding, power engineering, reconstructive surgery and dental medicine, and the aerospace industry. The direct cultivation of metal products here is motivated by economic feasibility, since this one turned out to be less expensive. With the use of additive technologies, the working bodies of turbines and shafts, implants and endoprostheses, spare parts for cars and aircraft are produced.

The development of rapid production was also facilitated by a significant expansion in the number of available metal powder materials. If in 2000 there were 5-6 types of powders, now a wide range is offered, amounting to dozens of compositions from structural steels to precious metals and heat-resistant alloys.

Additive technologies are also promising in mechanical engineering, where they can be used in the manufacture of tools and fixtures for mass production - inserts for injection molding machines, molds, templates.

Ultimaker 2 is the best 3D printer of 2016

According to CHIP magazine, which tested and compared consumer 3D printers, the best printers of 2016 are Ultimaker's Ultimaker 2, Conrad's Reniforce RF1000 and MakerBot's Replicator Desktop 3D Printer.

The Ultimaker 2+ uses deposition modeling technology in its improved model. The 3D printer is distinguished by the smallest layer thickness of 0.02 mm, short calculation time, low printing cost (2600 rubles per 1 kg of material). Main characteristics:

• the size working chamber- 223 x 223 x 305 mm;
• weight - 12.3 kg;
• head size - 0.25 / 0.4 / 0.6 / 0.8 mm;
• head temperature - 180-260°C;
• layer resolution - 150-60/200-20/400-20/600-20 microns;
• print speed - 8-24 mm 3 /s;
• XYZ accuracy - 12.5-12.55 microns;
• material - PLA, ABS, CPE with a diameter of 2.85 mm;
• software - Cura;
• supported file types - STL, OBJ, AMF;
• - 221 W;
• price - 1,895 euros for the base model and 2,495 euros for the extended one.

According to customer reviews, the printer is easy to install and use. They note high resolution, self-adjusting bed, a wide variety of materials used, the use of open source software. The disadvantages of the printer include the open design of the printer, which can lead to burns from hot material.

LulzBot Mini 3D Printer

PC Magazine's Ultimaker 2 and Replicator Desktop 3D Printer also made it to the top three, but here it was the LulzBot Mini 3D Printer that came out on top. Its specifications are:

• working chamber size - 152 x 152 x 158 mm;
• weight - 8.55 kg;
• head temperature - 300°C;
• layer thickness - 0.05-0.5 mm;
• print speed - 275 mm / s at a layer height of 0.18 mm;
• material - PLA, ABS, HIPS, PVA, PETT, polyester, nylon, polycarbonate, PETG, PCTE, PC-ABS, etc. with a diameter of 3 mm;
• software - Cura, OctoPrint, BotQueue, Slic3r, Printrun, MatterControl, etc.;
• power consumption - 300 W;
• price - 1,250 US dollars.

Sciaky EBAM 300

One of the best industrial additive manufacturing machines is Sciaky's EBAM 300. The cathode-beam gun deposits layers of metal at a speed of up to 9 kg per hour.

• size of the working chamber - 5791 x 1219 x 1219 mm;
• vacuum chamber pressure - 1x10 -4 Torr;
• power consumption - up to 42 kW at a voltage of 60 kV;
• technology - extrusion;
• material - titanium and titanium alloys, tantalum, inconel, tungsten, niobium, stainless steel, aluminum, steel, copper-nickel alloy (70/30 and 30/70);
• maximum volume - 8605.2 l;
• price - 250 thousand US dollars.

Additive technologies in Russia

Industrial class machines are not produced in Russia. So far, developments are only underway at Rosatom, the laser center of the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman, Stankin University, St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Ural Federal University. Voronezhselimmash, which produces Alfa educational and household 3D printers, is developing an industrial additive installation.

The same is true for consumables. The leader in the development of powders and powder compositions in Russia is VIAM. It produces powder for additive technologies, which is used in the restoration of turbine blades, by order of the Perm Aviadvigatel. There is also progress at the All-Russian Institute of Light Alloys (VILS). Development is carried out by various engineering centers throughout Russian Federation. Rostec, the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ural Federal University are developing their own projects. But all of them are not able to satisfy even a small demand of 20 tons of powder per year.

In this regard, the government instructed the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Communications, the Russian Academy of Sciences, FANO, Roscosmos, Rosatom, Rosstandart, and development institutions to create a coordinated program of development and research. To this end, it is proposed to allocate additional budget allocations, as well as to consider the possibility of co-financing from the NWF and other sources. It is recommended to support new ones, including additive ones, to RVC, Rosnano, the Skolkovo Foundation, the EXIAR export agency, and Vnesheconombank. Also, the government, represented by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, will prepare a section of the state program to develop and increase the competitiveness of industry.

As you know, there are several methods of 3D printing, but all of them are derivatives of the additive manufacturing technology. Regardless of which 3D printer you use, the construction of the workpiece is carried out by layer-by-layer addition of raw materials. Despite the fact that the term Additive Manufacturing is used very rarely by domestic engineers, layer-by-layer synthesis technologies have actually occupied modern industry.

Excursus into the past of Additive Manufacturing

Digital manufacturing has found its application in medicine, aerospace, the production of finished products and prototyping. Although 3D printing is considered to be one of the main discoveries of the twenty-first century, in reality, additive technologies appeared several decades earlier.

The industry was pioneered by Charles Hull, founder of 3D Systems. In 1986, an engineer assembled the world's first stereolithographic 3D printer, making digital technology a huge leap forward. Around the same time, Scott Crump, who later founded Stratasys, released the world's first FDM machine. Since then, the 3D printing market has been growing rapidly and replenished with new models of unique printing equipment.

At first, both SLA and FDM technologies developed side by side exclusively in the direction industrial production, however, in 1995, a turning point was ripe, which made additive manufacturing methods available to the public. MIT students, Jim Bredt and Tim Anderson, have implemented layer-by-layer material synthesis technology into the body of a conventional desktop printer. This is how the Z Corporation was founded, long considered a leader in the field of home printing of three-dimensional figures.

Additive Manufacturing Technology - The Age of Innovation

Today, AF technologies are used everywhere: research organizations use them to create unique materials and fabrics, industrial giants use 3D printers to accelerate the prototyping of new products, architectural and design bureaus found endless construction potential in 3D printing, while design studios literally breathed new life into the design business with additive machines.

The most accurate additive technology is stereolithography, a method of layer-by-stage curing of a liquid photopolymer by a laser. SLA printers are used primarily for producing prototypes, mockups and high-precision design components with a high level of detail.

Selective laser sintering originally appeared as an advanced method for curing liquid photopolymer. SLS technology allows the use of powdered materials as ink. Modern SLS printers are capable of handling ceramic clay, metal powder, cement, and complex polymers.

In the foundry industry, PolyJet machines have recently appeared using classic AF technology. They are equipped with inkjet printheads filled with fast curing material. To date, InkJet 3D printers are not widely used, but it is possible that in a few years 3D inkjet printing will become as common as classic printing devices. ExOne pioneered the industry with its S-Max prototyping machine.

The cheapest are still FDM printers - devices that create three-dimensional objects by layer-by-layer deposition of a filament. The most common printers of this type are those that print with molten plastic filament. They can be equipped with one or more printheads, inside which there is a heating element.

Most additive printers that print plastic can only create single-color shapes, but recently machines have appeared on the 3D printing market that use several types of filament at the same time. This innovation allows you to create colored objects.

Prospects for AF technology

At the moment, the 3D printing market is far from being oversaturated. Industry analysts agree that additive manufacturing has a bright future. Already today, research centers that underestimate AF developments receive huge financial injections from the defense complex and state medical institutions, which leaves no doubt about the accuracy of expert forecasts!

Digital production using the additive method consists in the layer-by-layer creation of an object of any complexity. Additive technologies are fundamentally different from those used until recently. Their main difference is that they are not subtractive, as, for example, the CNC processing method, but collective. In other words, the product is assembled from the parts made by the powder composition. Compared to casting, stamping or CNC machining, this technology increases productivity up to thirty times, but most importantly, it makes it possible to obtain parts that were impossible to create with traditional methods.

Innovative 3D additive technologies allow you to create models of any shape and size, as the layer-by-layer synthesis process occurs layer by layer. This method of production uses a method such as prototyping. This makes it possible to create not a ready-made object that can be used for specific purposes, but its prototype, which allows you to evaluate the capabilities and characteristics of the model, its external data, etc.

Prototypes can be presented to customers and also used for marketing purposes. For example, car shows often use rapid prototyping models to present to potential customers. This technology makes it possible to produce prototypes quickly and, most importantly, inexpensively compared to standard production methods.

Additive manufacturing technologies are widely used to reduce design costs by identifying possible errors in the early stages of design. In addition, this technology reduces the time to market by strengthening the connection between the customer and the designer. It almost completely eliminates the laborious and lengthy stage of manufacturing prototypes.

History of development and scope of 3D additive technologies

Many consider 3D printing to be the invention of the 21st century, but the technique of additive printing dates back to the 1980s. And her father is considered Ch. Hull - the man who designed the first stereolithographic 3D printer working on SLA technology. Soon another engineer, S. Kramp, was able to design and build an FDM printer. And, despite the fact that these printing technologies are slightly different from each other, they are united by one principle - the layer-by-layer growth of a three-dimensional model. By the end of the nineties, both technologies began to be used in industry. A little later, 3D technology was introduced into desktop printers by two students of the Massachusetts Institute, and today additive technologies, 3D modeling technologies are widely used not only in production, but also in everyday life.

Presently modern technologies digital production are used in construction, architecture, medicine, astronautics, mechanical engineering and other fields of activity. For example, additive technologies in mechanical engineering make it possible to create high-quality prototypes of models that help to study all the characteristics of a future product or unit. In prototyping, the most commonly used stereolithographic AF-printing method, in which layers of liquid polymer are solidified using a laser. The technique allows obtaining prototypes of the most complex objects with many small elements, including non-standard shapes.

What problems does the use of additive technologies in digital production solve?

The integrated computer digital production control system includes the use of numerical modeling, three-dimensional (3D) visualization, engineering analysis and collaboration tools designed to develop the design of products and technological processes for their manufacture.

Digital Manufacturing Design is the concept of technological preparation of production in a single virtual environment using planning, verification and simulation tools. production processes. Digital production technologies are, first of all, the processes of translating digital design into a physical object.

The use of additive technologies solves such problems of digital industries as the modernization and automation of existing and the design of new efficient machine-building industries for various purposes, means and systems for their equipment, as well as production and technological processes using automated systems for technological preparation of production.

Additive technologies are actively used in power engineering, instrument making, aviation industry, space industry, where there is a high need for products of complex geometry.In Russia, many enterprises have already become acquainted with additive technologies. We bring to your attention material from the almanac"Production Management", which describes several examples of the effective implementation of 3D printing.

Additive technologies have opened up the possibility of manufacturing parts of any complexity and geometry without technological restrictions. The part geometry can be changed at the design and testing stage.

Preparation of files for printing is carried out on computers with standard software, STL files are accepted for work. This is a widely used format for storing three-dimensional objects for stereolithographic 3D printers today. Investments in the project amounted to about 60 million rubles.

Alexander Zdanevich, IT Director, NPK United Wagon Company: “Additive printing technologies are progressing, and, most likely, in the near future they will change the face of a number of industries. This mainly concerns enterprises that produce piece goods for a specific order. With mass production, the situation is more complicated, although different types of 3D printers are already being used in this area.

There are many technologies for bulk synthesis. One of the promising for industrial implementation is. The process can be divided into two stages. At the first stage, a construction layer is formed in the form of a liquid photopolymer evenly distributed over the surface of the working platform. Then there is a selective curing of sections of this layer in accordance with the current section of the 3D model built on the computer.

With regard to railway engineering, this technology can be used at the stage of preparation of foundry production, in particular, in the production of a set of foundry equipment. The same set of tooling, unique for each casting, is used for thousands of production cycles of the corresponding casting molds.

The quality of the final product directly depends on the accuracy of all the parameters provided for by the designers during the manufacturing process of the tooling kit. The traditional method of manufacturing a set of tooling by mechanical processing of materials (metal, plastic, and sometimes wood) is very laborious and lengthy (sometimes takes up to several months), while being sensitive to errors.

Other components and assemblies can be embedded in the "printed" models. 3D printing fully pays off due to the high speed of prototyping, as well as due to “development on the table” directly in the OGK, which saves a lot of time and money than making full-scale samples in the “iron” in production.

Significant work on the promotion of additive technologies is carried out by State Corporation Rosatom. The management is confident that soon the state corporation will have all the components of "digital production" - from the development of materials, equipment, technologies to the production of products. The industry is implementing a program on additive technologies, it consists of subsections: technology, raw materials, equipment, standardization. Three institutes are involved in the development of technologies for the production of metal powders for 3D printing in Rosatom: Giredmet, VNIIKhT, VNIINM. At the same time, work is underway to create a prototype 3D printer for 3D printing of metal and composite products. Rosatom plans to submit a sample by the end of 2017.

3D printing fully pays off due to the high speed of prototyping, as well as due to “development on the table” directly in the OGK, which saves a lot of time and money than making full-scale samples in the “iron” in production.

“By the beginning of 2018, we must close the entire cycle of additive technologies within Rosatom. We need another year to launch our own pilot plant, and about the same time to come to an agreement with all parties that provide the regulatory component used,” said Alexey Dub.

In the structure of Rosatom, additive technologies are being developed in the TVEL fuel company, which is actively cooperating with the regional engineering center created at UrFU, working on the creation of a Russian 3D printer. For the Ural Electrochemical Combine and its enterprises, powder metallurgy is not a novelty. For example, at the plant of electrochemical converters, powders were used in the production of filters for gaseous diffusion of uranium in the separation of isotopes, as well as for solders and surface spraying.

In the scientific and educational center "Modern production technologies" of the Tomsk Polytechnic University

One of the pioneers in the field of laser printers can be called the Scientific and Educational Center "Modern Production Technologies" Tomsk Polytechnic University. It is equipped with an electron-beam fusion (electron-beam) printer, a laser printer, printers that print reinforced composites, as well as an ultrasonic tomograph that performs non-destructive testing of finished products here, “at the machine”. The specialists of the center manufacture AM-installations, develop software for them and intend to move beyond the “laboratory”.

The TPU Center for Additive Technologies has set up the entire production cycle - from the idea to the implementation of the finished product. It is possible to produce and test parts for spacecraft skins, implants for craniofacial surgery, intricately shaped products for and much more, as well as create new digital machines, for example, for printing instruments on the ISS. “With the help of our unique technologies, we can create import-substituting products that are several times cheaper than imported analogues, while the quality is not worse,” said Vasily Fedorov, director of the center.

The development of additive technologies also has constraints.

• Firstly, the high cost of technology (equipment and material), however, in the process of technology development, the price is gradually decreasing.
• Secondly, there is a shortage of qualified personnel who know the technology.
• Thirdly, insufficient development, lack of metrological support causes concern in the production of high-value parts.
• AM-processes (Additive Manufacturing) are not yet integrated into the manufacturing technology of products.“It is clear that any responsible designer will not put a part into a responsible product without knowing how long it will last,” commented Alexey Dub.
• An important task is the need to develop a certification and standardization system for additive products, technological processes, powders and compositions. To address these issues, a technical committee was formed at Rosstandart, which is working on the creation of regulatory documentation in the field of additive technologies.

3D printing is starting to spread around the world, and Russia should not be left behind in this area. The use of these technologies makes it possible to reduce the cost of the product, speed up its design and production.

- Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov

Conclusion

The popularity is steadily growing. Although the total volume of the world market is relatively small (about $6 billion), the annual growth rate cannot fail to impress - an average of 20-30%. However, there is still no unanimity in assessing the role of additive technologies in the industry: some say that the introduction of 3D printing methods will lead to the decline of the industry in the traditional sense, while others say that 3D printers will become just one element of production schemes. But despite all the existing disagreements, the great prospects of additive technologies in the industry cannot be denied.

The direct cultivation of products with complex geometry and from specific materials is very profitable from an economic point of view. It saves material, time, reduces the risk of errors. 3D printers have ceased to be an "expensive toy", today they take their rightful place among the key technologies

Accounting