Comparison and analysis of different 3d printing techniques
International Journal of Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology · 2017
A technology that can bring new revolution in manufacturing industry is 3D printing or rapid prototyping (RP) which includes adding successive layers of desired material for making three dimensional solid object or prototype from a virtual design, so additive nature of this technology as opposed to subtractive nature has given new name i.e. additive manufacturing (AM).3D printing is actually making a physical product by converting the CAD model into desired part by deposing layer by layer material through a computerized control nozzle.The 3D printing technology applications are not far away from manufacturing, construction, medical, electronics, defense and food industry where it is not only used for making models and prototype but also different assembly parts.Different 3D printing techniques such as Stereolithography, FDM, SLS, SLM, LOM are available for making parts within a short period of time and with desired good quality regarding characteristics regarding performance and materials.3D printing in comparison to 2D printing builds three dimensional parts, consequently layer by layer deposition on top of each other.Firstly, in 3D printing a geometrical shape of any part is made in CAD software and then this part is sliced into a series of parallel cross-section pieces with also generating the curing or binding path.The part is then generated by solidifying or binding the material as per the instructions given by curing or binding paths which are generated earlier.Different 3D printing emerged in the last few years such as Stereolithography (SLA) Fused deposition modeling (FDM) Selective laser sintering (SLS) Selective laser melting (SLM) 3D ink jet printing (Binder Jetting) Laminated object manufacturing (LOM) These 3D printing techniques are capable of directly making any part of the CAD database under consideration of different process parameters like laser power, layer thickness, build orientation, Density and printing materials like poly matrix composite, thermosetting and thermoplastic polymer materials like acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), poly-lactic acid