3D Printing - Changing the way things are Made (forever).

When 3D printing initially gained mindshare with consumers, a Jetsonian future crystallized, where we built rather than bought. A future where we could have it our way, in any color we liked, from the comfort of our own home. Since that initial wave of hype, technical constraints have limited this promising technology to niche applications. And while we intrinsically understand that 3D printing will eventually change everything we know about manufacturing, labor and supply chains, the arrival of that future state has proven to be elusive. Within the last year, new technological advances have product brands mobilizing to usher in the first wave of high-volume, high-quality 3D printing production -- a development that promises staggering implications across many different sectors.

 Are we there yet?

• “It takes too long”
• “Material choices are way too limited”
• “Performance is too low”
• “Printed parts are mechanically weak”
• “It’s too expensive to be cost effective”

These sentiments represent the typical knocks against 3D printing and have confined the technology to acute applications within the broader manufacturing spectrum. “With 3D printing, there has always been a huge trade-off. If the finish is good, you can bet that the mechanical integrity isn’t up to par. And if the finish is perfect, the printed part probably doesn’t have the strength to hold up under repeated use,” said John Dulchinos, Jabil Vice President of Global Automation and 3D Printing. “A gap has always existed where we couldn’t produce high quality, high integrity parts at scale and at cost.”

While this gap has barred 3D printing (or more broadly additive manufacturing) from volume production, the technology is commonly used as an accelerator in the design stage of the new product introduction (NPI) period. Jabil’s digital prototyping lab at the Blue Sky Center in San Jose California uses 3D printing to compress design cycles and consequently reduce time-to-market.

While expediting the design stage of the NPI process certainly adds value for product brands obsessed with speed, that was never the intended ceiling for this technology. In fact, the increasingly en vogue digital manufacturing concept, the digital thread relies on the growth and maturation of 3D printing to the point where it can be used in production. This concept, which refers to the unbroken digital connection between a computer-aided design (CAD) drawing and a finished product, is mainly aspirational today because the process breaks down after prototyping. But with 3D printing approaching parity with milling, injection molding, and other established capabilities, the thread is strengthening, and enabling a connected end-to-end production process.

New Breakthroughs in 3D Printing Technology

Don’t get the wrong impression. No one will be 3D printing millions of game consoles, toasters or sneakers anytime soon. The first wave of production quality 3D printing will feel incremental, with small improvements leading to big results in terms of time-to-market, customer satisfaction, design quality and cost efficiency. According to Dulchinos, “we believe 3D printing is on the verge of moving into two production areas. The first of which is the 3D printing production of fixtures, jigs, molds and tools that we use in our manufacturing processes. The second area is the production of real end-use parts in 3D printers.”

Additive Manufacturing Inflection Point has arrived

So what’s changed? A big factor has been the emergence of a new class of open source, low-cost fused filament fabrication (FFF) machines. These new machines can produce production tooling at a lower cost point, utilize many different production materials and even integrate with homegrown software. This higher degree of flexibility at a much lower capital expenditure opens the floodgates in terms of how frequently engineers can develop tooling and make design changes.

The second game-changing factor has been the release of new printing solutions with the capability to produce high integrity parts at a speed and cost point that starts to rival traditional manufacturing methods for low to mid-volume production. The Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) by HP, for example, produces parts up to 10 times faster and at half the cost of other solutions. Jabil is proud to be one of HP's Foundation partners. Together we will bring this world class equipment, coupled with a set of Jabil consulting services including years of additive manufacturing know-how to help customers modernize their production manufacturing environments in order to gain unprecedented levels of speed and efficiency.

The Implications of Production-Grade 3D Printing

So what does this all mean for product brands fighting for relevancy in a demanding consumer marketplace? For businesses, there are four big implications from the arrival of production quality 3D printing.

1) Faster Time-to-Market

The most immediate impact is the acceleration of the NPI process well beyond what was possible with rapid prototyping. Now, this technology can be extended to the full manufacturing process release procedure, which compresses the timeline for taking a product from prototype to large-scale manufacturing. Typically this has been constrained by the lengthy development of assembly fixtures, manufacturing jigs, and tooling. According to Dulchinos, “From a time perspective, you can cut the NPI period by as much as half when compared with a “tooled-up” manufacturing process.”

2) New Design Geometries 

For the most part, product design is constrained by the manufacturing process. Designers will only design products that can be machined, molded or stamped -- processes that all have their own unique limitations. 3D printing, on the other hand, represents a more pure manufacturing process that allows designers to make unique shapes and designs that simply couldn’t be made any other way. 

This great unshackling of engineering ingenuity is already changing the way aerospace companies design and build jet engines. For example, General Electric (GE) is currently 3D printing the flight-critical fuel nozzles for their LEAP jet engines. GE created a product with a longer lifespan, a 25 percent reduction in weight and even eliminated 20 parts. The weight reduction alone provides incredible savings because according to a leading airline, reducing the weight of an aircraft by one pound may save $300,000 in fuel costs per year.

3) The Arrival of Mass Customization

Because 3D printing utilizes a digital format, parts can be completely different from one run to the next. This benefit is most apparent when creating personalized products that conform to the human body. “Now we can make the geometry fit the individual rather than making the individual fit the geometry,” said Dulchinos. “In fact, our ability to create a product that is personalized to an individual customer can only be done through technologies like additive manufacturing.”

Now instead of a one-size-fits-most approach, medical devices, clothing and many other applications can be customized to fit an individual’s anatomy. It is even predicted that 3D printed time-release drugs and organ printing will come to fruition in the not-too-distant future. According to Gartner, by 2019, 10 percent of people in the developed world will be living with 3D-printed items inside or on their bodies—that’s about 600 million people.

4) Better Cost-Effectiveness for Low to Mid-Volume Production

Tooling and molding are very expensive to make and each unique part requires it’s own custom equipment. Production level 3D printing shatters that constraint by totally negating the need for tooling and molding. In a 3D printing production environment, a line can move from one task to the next, making completely different parts each and every run. Changes only need to be made to the CAD file that defines the next part. Maintaining the digital thread results in a higher degree of low volume flexibility at a more economical price point than injection molding.

According to Dulchinos, the cost difference between 3D printing and legacy manufacturing methods is contingent on the break-even points. For example, if you have a break-even point of 20,000 units for a particular part, but you only plan to produce 10,000 units, then it is substantially cheaper to use 3D printing than injection molding. But if you have a break-even point of 20,000 units and you plan on producing 19,000 units, then the cost is about the same. “Determining whether 3D printing or injection molding is cheaper really depends on where that breakeven point is. But in general, the lower the volume, the higher the cost-benefit to using 3D printing over traditional molded or tooled manufacturing processes.” said Dulchinos.

Partner with Jabil to Begin your 3D Printing Journey

According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 52 percent of manufacturers expect 3D printing to be used for high-volume production in the next three to five years, growing from just 38 percent in 2014. This means rethinking how consumer packaged goods get made -- a challenging endeavor for any product brand. By partnering with manufacturing solutions providers, businesses can realize every competitive advantage associated with additive manufacturing and 3D printing.

For example, Superfeet, a Jabil customer, Jabil helps its customers accelerate new product introductions by 3D printing tooling and fixtures as well as high-quality scalable parts of all shapes and sizes. By connecting the digital thread across all stages of product development, Jabil streamlines and optimizes manufacturing processes with a host of 3D printing and Additive Manufacturing Services designed to assist product brands in speeding their digital transformation.

If you are interested in learning more, please visit us at www.jabil.com or reach directly to Leslie Scarandino. Or if you are absolutely fascinated with the possibilities of a career in the world of 3D Printing, please check out the Jabil Careers pages to learn more.