China will be the leader in 3D printing field

Absrtact: April 30, in Paris, France, a 112-year history of the technical competition, the United States Stratasys Company showed a consumer-oriented 3D printer. Stratasys company recently launched a 3D printer printed fashion shoes. What is FDM technology? FDM Technology

April 30, in Paris, France, a 112-year history of the technical competition, the United States Stratasys Company showed a consumer-oriented 3D printer.

Stratasys company recently launched a 3D printer printed fashion shoes.

What is "FDM" technology?

FDM technology, all known as "molten deposition rapid prototyping technology." Molten deposition, also known as fuse deposition, is the melting of filamentous hot-melt material, which is squeezed out by a nozzle with a tiny nozzle. After melting the hot melt material from the nozzle, deposited in the production panel or the previous layer of the cured material, temperature is lower than the curing temperature to start curing, through the layers of material to form the final finished product.

Stratasys, the world's leading 3D printer manufacturer, has launched a new 3D printer's fashion shoes, sparking concern in Paris Fashion Week. Recently, the United States Stratasys Company board Chairman, 3D Printing core technology "FDM" inventor Scott Kremp and Stratasy Company Asia Pacific and Japan region general manager Jonathan Gaglond jointly accepted the Beijing News reporter interview, talk about 3D printing bottleneck, High cost of materials and 3D printing in China's development and many other issues.

At the Paris Fashion Week in early July, Stratasys announced the introduction of 12 pairs of "root" women's shoes, which were printed by 3D printers, in collaboration with Dutch architect Airis Fan Hobern and Dutch architect Koolhaas.

"Root" women's shoes show the natural growth of roots, the media said.

Airis Fan Hobern Comments on these women's shoes, said: "In my case, fashion has always been to determine the boundaries of self, the Declaration of self." This time, the REM and I wanted to create something that resonated with the beauty and wildness of the natural world, so we decided to use the 3D printing technology to practice these concepts through a pair of women's shoes. ”

This is the first time that Koolhaas has been involved in designing 3D printed women's shoes. Facing these shoes, he was feeling: "I am very excited, they are amazing ..." Working with Stratasys allows us to quickly detect shoes in the design phase, and then adjust them to achieve the best function and best form. That's it, it's easy to change, I need it. ”

This May 19, the Beijing News Earth Weekly cover story "3D print Who and the streets" focused on the development of 3D printing in the United States as well as on the 3D print "China test." U.S. industry sources pointed out that the Obama vision of 3D printing technology for the United States to lead the world's new technological revolution, "leader" to create the future of the United States.

Lu Bingheng, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, has said that China still has a big gap between the development of the 3D printing industry and the United States, such as not forming industrial chain and industrial environment. In addition, in some core technology and key devices, such as the 3D printer, the laser is still dependent on the larger foreign.

Scott Kremp, the chairman of the United States Stratasys Company, accepted the Beijing News reporter interview, then optimistic about China's future in the 3D field. He thinks China is a leader, not a follower.

"Industrial value far exceeding cost"

Beijing News: There are reports that the current 3D printing costs and prices are high, especially from the machine and raw materials, the cost is too high, resulting in 3D printing can not be used in ordinary households. What do you think about that?

Jonathan: Your question can be divided into two small questions: one is about the professional user's view of the cost, and the second is how we solve the problem of the consumer market. The first thing I want to say is that the value of 3D printing to the industry is huge. You can imagine that you have the ability to print out the product within a few hours and test it. Then your team optimizes the product. Judging from this perspective, 3D printing to the industry's value is 10 times times the cost.

If I were the leader of a company's engineering team, we can design a spare part, then print it out at night using 3D printing, the next morning we can get the model, then the whole team to discuss, evaluate the product's pros and cons, find the design of loopholes, and then make up for these vulnerabilities, the evening to print out new products.

In the face of very small consumer users, our product prices are also down the road. We will soon sign an agreement to buy MakerBot, whose flagship product is a desktop printer, priced at less than 5000 dollars.

Beijing News: It is pointed out that raw materials are one of the biggest bottlenecks in the 3D printing industry, and it is difficult to break through in the short term.

Scott: I disagree with that view. 3D Printing is the design of products to build a bridge between the products, so that products into the market faster. We think that the bottleneck of 3D printing is not the high cost of materials, but the sense of reinvestment. 10% of our income will be put into new materials research and development. Now, we have more than 130 different kinds of new materials. In the past more than 20 years, we have also seen many companies doing 3D printing materials, but many do not achieve sustainable development.

"Media Awareness 3D"

Beijing News: The impact of 3D printing on industrial design is obvious to all. However, it is argued that 3D printing is difficult to perform in the field of mass manufacturing. How do you comment on this situation?

Scott: Currently, the application of 3D printing in the manufacturing field is really aimed at some small-scale manufacturing. In addition, 3D printing works best in industries that require very high customization, such as automotive manufacturing. Without modeling tools, you can quickly design and produce one or several, 50 or hundreds of components. In contrast, the traditional process is a large piece of material to take over a lot of material is wasted. With 3D printing, material inputs and outputs can be well controlled.

Beijing News: China attaches great importance to 3D printing, and sees the future of the advanced manufacturing industry. In your opinion, is 3D printing likely to become the mainstream of future manufacturing? How do you judge the 3D print market in China?

Scott: 3D printing can have a huge impact on the manufacturing industry and is developing rapidly. Now we see 3D printing main material is plastic, there will be a metal material 3D printing, in short, influence will be more and more big.

China will play a more and more important role in 3D printing in the future, and I think China's role will definitely be a leader, not a follower.

Jonathan: We've invested a lot in China. We have offices in Shanghai, Asia Pacific and Japan are headquartered in Hong Kong. We also have a large investment in infrastructure. We believe that China will be a very important market for 3D printing, and our ideas are proving to be correct. We are now in 73 countries in the world have a print product sales, China is the fastest growing in the 73 countries.

Beijing News: 3D Printing in China in the future direction of development?

Jonathan: 3D printing can be tailored for different vertical markets, such as education and dentistry. We have a high degree of localization. Localization is a great advantage and we can better listen to the voice of local users to meet their needs.

I still want to emphasize that our core competency is in the rapid prototyping of this piece. Rapid prototyping also has great potential in China. The burden on the media is heavy, and we hope you can enhance the user's awareness of 3D printing.