为何说3D打印代表了制造业未来

刘颖

New 3D printing processes have reduced the time it takes for designers and engineers to conceptualize, create, and test prototypes. But for 3D printing to catch on the rapidly changing manufacturing industry, it will have to be seen by companies less as a fascinating technological upgrade and more as an everyday business decision.

That’s the conclusion from a report published in August by Stratasys Direct Manufacturing SSYS -6.01% , the service arm of the global 3D-printer manufacturing company Stratasys. SDM provides advanced manufacturing and prototyping services to manufacturing companies who might need a 3D-printed prototype or part, but lack the in-house equipment or staff expertise.

“Today 3D printing is still perceived as a technology solution, but the future of 3D printing is as a business solution,” wrote Joe Allison, CEO of SDM, in 3D Printing’s Imminent Impact on Manufacturing.

The report, which didn’t identify SDM as the sponsor, pulled together survey responses given by 700 designers, engineers, and business executives, nearly half of whom work for manufacturing companies that pull in more than $50 million in revenue a year. Respondents came from the aerospace, medical, automotive, and energy industries, and all of them work for companies that are already using advanced manufacturing processes or plan to introduce things like 3D printing or direct metal laser sintering within three years. (And just so we’re all on the same page: The terms additive manufacturing and 3D printing were used interchangeably in the report.)

So what, exactly, does SDM mean in saying that additive manufacturing’s future is as a business solution? As Allison writes in the report, the growth in 3D printing over the next three years will come in “end-use” production.

“What we’re seeing now, and what our customers are doing … is using this technology all the way through the product lifecycle process,” said Jim Bartel, senior vice president of strategy, marketing, and business development for SDM. In a call with Fortune, Bartel said that participants in the survey are looking for the return on investment after purchasing 3D printing equipment and training the staff to use it. “Engineers are creating cool parts off their printers, but what it comes to is: What’s the business value?” he said.

In other words, the next phase of 3D printing development within manufacturing companies will involve bringing 3D printing out of the realm of rapid prototyping and into the assembly line, where additive processes are used to make parts that end up on the final product. This is already happening in some industries, and Stratasys has a direction connection to some of this work. In November 2014, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory installed parts 3D printed by Stratasys onto one of its satellites bound for outer space. Airbus is using Stratasys’ production-grade printers to print flight parts for its new A350 XWB airplane; the first one of these planes delivered in December 2014 had more than 1,000 3D-printed parts installed in it.

“Within 10 years, every commercial airplane will have 3D printed parts on it,” wrote Allison in the introduction to SDM’s new report.

To prepare for this shift in 3D printing, one that will see more companies using additive manufacturing, especially with metals, to manufacture end-use parts, companies are staffing up, training new workers, and buying more 3D printing machines, SDM’s report shows that 73% of the 700 respondents to SDM’s survey said their companies plan to increase their in-house production of additively manufactured parts, a trend more pronounced in the aerospace and medical industries. But Bartel said that, as companies increasingly turn to additive processes to manufacture end-use products, more outsourcing will be done by companies without the financial resources to purchase the equipment and train the staff. SDM’s report shows that more companies are planning to outsource additive metal production over the near-term.

And printing in metals is key. According to Bartel, SDM’s customers, especially those in the aerospace and medical fields, are asking for and using aluminum and titanium, lightweight metals with considerable material strength. SDM’s report bears this out: At 84%, respondents ranked metals as the leader when it comes to which materials they’d like to see developed further for additive manufacturing in the future. SDM predicts additive metal use overall to double in the next three years.

“If you wanted to print a full airplane wing, you could theoretically do it,” Bartel said.

SDM’s findings fit with some of the conclusions from this year’s Wohlers Report, the definitive, industry report on what’s happening with 3D printing and additive manufacturing worldwide. According to an analysis of the 2015 Wohlers Report by Engineering.com, ”the use of industrial metal additive manufacturing systems for demanding production applications in the aerospace and medical markets also grew strongly.” Worldwide, the market for additive manufacturing services and products grew to $4.1 billion in 2014, according to the Wohlers Report. And more growth is expected in coming years.

“People really have been looking at this [additive] technology historically more as a technology solution,” said Bartel, “but it’s now meeting business needs for customers.”

刘颖

最新的3D打印技术已经缩短了设计师和工程师提出原型产品概念、制造原型产品和测试原型产品的时间。但3D打印技术要想在瞬息万变的制造业中有所作为，就得让企业不再只是把它当成一项新奇的技术升级，还能够将它纳入到日常的业务决策中。

这就是Stratasys Direct Manufacturing公司（简称SDM）研究报告的结论。SDM是全球3D打印制造企业Stratasys旗下的服务部门，专门为那些可能需要3D打印的原型产品或零部件，但又缺乏专业3D打印设备和技术人员的制造公司提供先进的制造和原型制作服务。

SDM公司的CEO乔•埃里森在《3D打印即将给制造业带来的影响》一文中写道：“今天，3D打印仍被看作一个技术解决方案，但未来的3D打印将是一个商业解决方案。”

这份未将SDM注明为赞助方的报告针对700名设计师、工程师和企业高管进行了调查，其中近半数受访者来自年收入5000万美元以上的制造企业。这些受访者来自航空、医疗、汽车和能源行业，他们的公司要么已经采用先进的制造工艺，要么打算在三年内引进3D打印或直接金属激光烧结设备。（需要注意的是，下文提到的“增材制造”和“3D打印”指的是同一个概念。）

SDM声称增材打印技术将成为一个商业解决方案。这究竟有何含义？埃里森在该报告中写道，未来三年，3D打印技术将进入“终端生产”环节。

SDM公司的战略、营销与业务开发高级副总裁吉姆•巴特尔指出：“我们发现我们的客户正在整个产品生命周期过程中利用这项技术。”巴特尔对《财富》表示，此次调查的受访者们都希望在采购3D打印设备和训练相关技术人员之后，能收到比较好的投资回报。“工程师已经在用3D打印机生产一些很酷的零件了，但这样做究竟有什么商业价值？”

也就是说，3D打印技术在制造企业中的下一个发展阶段，将从原型产品的快速制造过渡到组装生产线，届时增材制造工艺将被用来制造量产产品的零部件。其实这在有些行业已经发生了，Stratasys公司自身就和一些此类项目有直接联系。比如，2014年11月，美国航空航天局的喷气推进实验室就在一颗飞往地外空间的卫星上安装了一些由Stratasys公司用3D打印技术生产的零部件。空客公司目前已经开始利用Stratasys公司的量产级3D打印机，生产最新型空客A350 XWB客机的零部件。第一架飞机已经于2014年12月交付，它上面有1000多个用3D打印技术制造的零部件。

艾利森在SDM公司的这篇报告的简介中写道：“十年之内，每架商用飞机上都将有3D打印的零部件。”

是的，3D打印技术将进入终端零件，特别是金属材料的生产环节。为了迎接这种变迁，很多企业正在构建自己的3D打印技术力量，培训新员工，购买更多的3D打印机。SDM的报告显示，在700名受访者中，有73%的受访者表示，他们的企业打算提高3D打印零部件的内部生产，这种趋势在航空和医疗行业更为明显。不过巴特尔也表示，随着企业越来越多地使用增材制造技术生产终端产品，很多没有足够财力资源购买设备和培训人员的企业将把这一环节外包出去。SDM的报告显示，更多的企业计划在短期内将金属材料的增材制造工艺环节进行外包。

金属的打印是一个关键。巴特尔表示，SDM公司的客户，特别是航空和医疗领域的企业，都要求使用铝、钛等具有强度的轻质金属生产零部件。SDM的报告也指出，84%的受访者都把金属作为他们最希望能取得进展的3D打印材料。根据SDM公司的预测，3D打印金属的使用量将在未来三年里翻一番。

巴特尔表示：“如果你想打印出飞机的整个机翼，理论上也是能做到的。”

这份报告与全球3D打印与增材制造业最权威的《沃勒斯报告》得出了一些相同的结论。发布在Engineering.com上的《2015沃勒斯报告》中的一项分析表示：“在航空和医疗市场的一些高要求的生产应用中，工业金属增材制造系统的使用也增长得非常迅猛。”《沃勒斯报告》显示，增材制造服务和产品的市场规模在2014年增至41亿美元。在未来几年，这种增长趋势预计还将持续下去。

巴特尔表示：“人们一直将这项技术视为一种技术解决方案，但它已经开始满足客户的商业需求了。”