3D printing technology will have a revolutionary impact on the traditional shipbuilding industry for a long time

As an important symbol of the third industrial revolution, 3D printing technology is considered to be an important opportunity to promote a new round of industrial revolution. With the concept of "smart manufacturing" and "Industry 4.0", the application of 3D printing technology in the field of shipbuilding has become a hot topic.

This paper uses the literature research method and observation method to take the impact of 3D printing technology on the manufacturing industry as the starting point, comprehensively analyzes the current situation of 3D printing technology and industrial development, and believes that 3D printing technology is difficult to be widely used in the shipbuilding industry for a short time, but It will have a revolutionary impact on the traditional shipbuilding industry for a long time.

Mainstream 3D printing technology

3D printing technology is a kind of rapid prototyping technology, also known as additive manufacturing. The basic principle is to make a 3D model by computer aided design or scanning; cut into an infinite number of sections according to a certain coordinate axis, then print them one by one, and stack them together according to the original position to form a solid three-dimensional model. . The process flow is generally divided into three steps, namely three-dimensional modeling, product molding and post-processing of finished products.

There are currently a dozen practical rapid prototyping technologies, but almost all technologies are based on the following three basic principles.

One is to form a casting or semi-liquid material by squeezing the print head. The most common method is to squeeze the continuous flow of thermoplastic, which quickly solidifies as it leaves the printer nozzle. The “melt deposition molding”, “plastic printing”, “fuse modeling”, “fuse manufacturing” or “melt deposition method” currently on the market are products of this principle, just because of intellectual property issues. The name is different.

Second, a physical layer is formed by turning an uncommon liquid called "photosensitive resin" into a solid. Such liquids become hard when exposed to lasers or other light sources, such as "photocuring rapid prototyping processes", "photosensitive resin jetting", "multi-nozzle modeling" and "inkjet photosensitive resins".

Third, the model is made by bonding an unusual fine powder layer by layer. This "adhesion of particulate material" can be achieved either by spraying liquid glue or by bonding each powder layer, or by melting the powder particles by laser or other heat source. Such as "adhesive spray technology", "selective laser sintering technology", "directional energy deposition technology" and "electron beam melting technology".

There is also a "layered solid manufacturing technology" that uses paper cutters to bond paper, plastic or metal foil together, and then uses a supply device to push the material onto the production platform, using rollers (usually heated). The thin plate is rolled, and the laser at the top is cut on the sheet to cut the outline of the object layer, and then the production platform is lowered. This process is repeated until the entire object is printed. However, companies that offer this technology have closed down, and several other manufacturers of printers that produce this technology have also left the 3D printing market, so the technology is considered dead.

The status quo of 3D printing technology

The application of 3D printing technology can be divided into industrial and consumer. In 1986, 3D Systems was established in the United States. Two years later, the first industrialized "3D printing" device, the SLA-250, was launched, which formed a huge market in just a few years. 3D printing equipment users have rapidly expanded to small and medium-sized enterprises and even 3D printing personal enthusiasts by large enterprises and scientific research institutions that originally developed their own products. Currently, there are two 3D printer manufacturing giants around the world - 3D Systems and Stratasys, both listed in the US. As a leader in industrial-grade 3D printing, the two companies are expanding their downstream areas, enhancing software and solution investment, and industry integration, ranging from biological blood vessels to aircraft titanium alloy main bearing components. With the development of 3D printing technology, more and more manufacturers all over the world have entered the field of 3D printing, such as Voxeljet in Germany and ExOne in the US, such as small and medium-sized 3D printing manufacturers. The application of 3D printing technology has also expanded from initial research to medical, clothing, construction, dot-adding, mechanical manufacturing and industrial modeling.

With the maturity of global 3D printing technology, the 3D printing market has entered a high growth. Canalys expects market sales of 3D printers to reach $16.2 billion (including printers, materials and related services) by 2018, showing an average annual growth rate of 40% to 50%. Juniper Research expects the market size of China's 3D printers and related materials to increase from the current $75 million to $1.2 billion in 2018, showing explosive growth and increasing its share of the global market to 7.4% by 2018 (see Table 1). .

3D printing technology and traditional technology

Compared with traditional material removal, that is, cutting technology, 3D printing technology has the advantage of eliminating the need for traditional tools and fixtures and multiple processing steps to quickly and accurately create complex shapes, thus significantly reducing the processing time. Therefore, the more complex the structure of the manufactured product, the more obvious its advantages.

While 3D printing technology has many advantages, it also has many limitations (see Table 2).

Application of 3D printing technology in shipbuilding

At present, 3D printing technology has not been widely used in the shipbuilding industry. This is because the advantages of 3D printing technology cannot be fully determined in the shipbuilding industry.

Limited size

Since 3D printers are an inclusive printing device, products are usually smaller than printers. The structural size of the shipbuilding industry is much larger than the current 3D printing size, making it difficult for 3D printing to print out the structures needed for proper shipbuilding.

Expensive material

At present, suitable materials for 3D printing are plastic, ceramics and alloys, but they are still much more expensive than steel, which is widely used in traditional shipbuilding. Even the use of relatively inexpensive thermoplastics in existing 3D printing is still much more expensive than steel in conventional shipbuilding, and there are not many components for shipbuilding that are suitable for thermoplastics.

Timeliness cannot be played

Although 3D printing eliminates the need for machining or any mold, it can directly produce parts of any shape from computer graphics data, greatly reducing the product development cycle. The traditional shipbuilding industry and supporting industries have improved production efficiency through standardized and large-scale production lines. At present, 3D printing technology is more used to print small-sized, relatively simple parts, and cannot be used to print complex systems.

Low precision and unstable quality

Since 3D printing is a new technology, the current accuracy range is 0.01 mm, which is much lower than that achieved by traditional shipbuilding using "material reduction". In addition, the strength and hardness of mechanical products are much higher than those of 3D printed products.

Conclusion

Whether the cutting-edge and leading 3D printing technology can be widely used in the traditional manufacturing field depends on two aspects of progress: First, the development of 3D printing technology, the emergence of mature and stable 3D printing technology can directly print large-sized, complex components. Second, the traditional ship is a steel sea ship. With the development of material technology, if there is an economical and reliable polymer synthetic material that can replace steel materials, then the use of 3D printing polymer synthetic materials for sea-going ships will become a reality. .

At present, the development of the shipbuilding industry mainly relies on the input of factors, such as the investment of large docks and large factories to increase production capacity. At present, the country is promoting the upgrading of traditional manufacturing, and the shipbuilding industry is also actively promoting digital shipbuilding, such as computer management and 3D modeling. With the development of digitalization, the improvement of intelligence, the development of 3D printing technology and the revolutionary development of materials technology, 3D printing technology will eventually have a revolutionary impact on the traditional shipbuilding industry.