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3D printing industrial goods: What are the benefits for your company?

Introduction

Additive manufacturing can be used to create various industrial goods. When we talk about Industrial goods, we talk about all these products that are used for the production of other goods or services. How can 3D printing become a real asset to manufacture these products? How can it improve the product itself, but also impact your whole business strategy and manufacturing processes? 

About 3D printing for industrial goods

Industrial goods can encompass a wide range of products from raw material to equipment or machinery as well as any other components required by such industries. We are going to focus on tools and machines that help in the manufacturing of other goods, typically consumer goods and services. Industrial goods is certainly a bit vague since we are not specifically talking about a single industry, but we are going to go through general benefits and a few interesting cases that showcase what can be accomplished in several completely different fields.

Advantages of using 3D printing for industrial goods

Create your 3D printed parts with ease and speed

Thanks to our fast and reliable 3D printing service, you can improve your machine tool conception cycle. Industries 3D print several kinds of parts: concept models, impossible objects, and even finished parts. With rapid prototyping, you can shorten your prototyping time from weeks or months down to a few days. Additive manufacturing not only shortens your product development time but it will also improve the accuracy of your final prototype thanks to better management of your iterations.

Optimize your machine’s performance

3D printing can produce any part you can imagine as long as the design guidelines are respected, which is not the case with traditional manufacturing technologies such as injection molding or CNC machining. This allows you to create lighter and stronger parts that could not be produced by any other traditional manufacturing technique. Complex geometries are now fully accessible.

Replace quickly broken parts

Have a crucial part that is broken on your machine? 3D printing spare parts is becoming a huge asset for both companies and customers! With 3D printing, you can maintain a digital inventory of your parts and produce them as needed. Moreover, if the part often breaks, it might be time to take advantage of 3D printing to prevent it from breaking! Re-thinking and re-engineering the part can help you improve its resistance over time or to specific constraints. 

Save time and maximize your efficiency

It is time to improve your tooling process and make the most of lead time reduction by starting to implement additive manufacturing in your manufacturing process. As you can create the geometries you need, you can also rethink your parts and optimize your assembly process by printing complex parts in only one part, adapting it easily to your applications. This will help you save time and money, and improve the efficiency of your process. Lead time reduction is also a big advantage of using 3D printing for industrial goods. It allows for companies in the industrial goods sector to produce a product way faster. Additive manufacturing is able to improve processes with quick production or replacement of important production factors such as bolts and nuts. Tooling is an important factor in getting the most out of lead time reduction. 3D printed tools are cheaper, easier and quicker to produce, and perfectly adjusted to the required process demands.

3D printing applications for industrial products

Creating specific parts and tools

From the automotive sector to the medical field, adapted tools are becoming more and more common. Working with adapted tools is now accessible to anyone and any industry thanks to 3D printing. 

If you are ever lucky enough to visit an automotive factory you will most definitely be amazed by how much specialized machinery there is. With the rise of electronics and robotics in the last 20 years, car factories have turned into mazes of wires, computers and robotics arms. Even then, you will also be amazed at how much is still done by hand by small armies of highly skilled workers. The only way they can hope to keep up with their robotic counterparts is to work as comfortably and efficiently as possible, and that’s why custom assembly tools have been invented and designed to facilitate the installation of specific parts of the product being assembled.

In the case of automotive but also in many other industries, there are hundreds of component parts for each car model, which are also in constant evolution. On top of that, factories typically require relatively small quantities of each specific tool, making them particularly expensive to produce by traditional methods. In contrast, 3D printing is amazingly well suited for this kind of scenario, allowing for the production of short runs whenever is necessary, fast, on-site, and with unmatched design flexibility.

Which 3D printing technology can be used?

For customers of our online 3D printing service, plastics are still the most used materials for the industrial goods sector but closely followed by metal. Metal 3D printing offers advanced mechanical properties, perfect for machinery, tools or any industrial parts.

Metal 3D printing materials are more durable, they have better resistance to stress and other factors, and are capable of following safety rules that come along with specific industrial goods, making it ideal for the final consumer product that is being supported by this (3D printed) industrial good. 3D printing technologies such as Binder Jetting, SLM (Selective Laser Melting) and DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) offer resistant materials from Stainless Steel to Titanium! Do you need a metal material resistant to heat or to chemicals? Do you need a lighter material? Metal 3D printing can offer a wide range of options.

Focus on high-performance materials for industrial goods

Additive manufacturing is now offering the possibility to create parts for demanding sectors using advanced materials such as extremely resistant and rigid materials, or professional flexible plastics: we call them high-performance materials. 

  • Ultrasint® PA11 & MJF PA11 – These PA11 are bio-based materials, perfect to create durable parts able to withstand high mechanical loads and stress.

  • Ultrasint® PA11 CF is a 3D printing material reinforced with carbon fibers, providing advanced mechanical performance for your parts when strength and rigidity are needed, perfect for industrial parts.

  • Ultrasint® TPU88A & TPU01 – If you are looking for a resistant, flexible, and rubbery material, these TPU are perfect options. With good resilience after deformation and a high UV stability, this SLS TPU offers numerous advantages. It can be used to manufacture innovative industrial parts such as grippers.

  • Ultrasint® PP nat 01 & MJF PP – This advanced PP material powder is offering strength, ductility and stiffness to manufacture your industrial and end-use parts.
  • Ultrasint® PA6 MF – Ultrasint® PA6 MF (Mineral Filled) boasts extremely high rigidity, media tightness and enhanced thermal distortion performance.

Do you have any more questions regarding the applications of additive manufacturing to create industrial goods? Don’t hesitate to contact our 3D printing experts in order to get all the information you need to start your project.

If you already have a 3D model ready for 3D printing, feel free to upload your 3D file on our online 3D printing service to get your instant quote!

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