THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

3D printing is changing the way engineers are

designing and making things. So what will this mean
for manufacturing? Will all our high-tech goods be
3D printed? Find out what 3D printed tech you could
encounter in the future

Image: Wikimedia Commons/

NASA/The Boeing Company

Image: Flickr/terren in Virginia

Contents

Will I ever have a 3D

printed car?

Can you 3D print a plane?

1. Plane parts...p7
2. Smart design...p8
3. Speedy design...p9
4. Bigger and better...p10
5. Cheaper flights?...p11

Image Science Museum

Image: Flickr/Creative Tools

1. Printed parts...p1
2. Bloodhound...p2
3. Its all in the detail...p3
4. Better materials...p4
5. Best tool for the job...p5

How about a phone 3D

printed in-one?
1. Super-smart phone...p12
2. Printing circuits...p13
3. Making magnets...p14
4. When will it happen?...p15

Will everything be 3D printed?

1. Fantasy printing ...p16
2. Nano printing...p17
3. New materials...p18
4. Invisibility cloaks...p19
5. Camouflage Technology...p20

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will I ever have a 3D printed car?

1. PRINTED PARTS
Parts for planes and satellites can be improved
with 3D printing, but what about down on earth?
Will you be hopping into a 3D printed car for your
morning commute? What does Phil Reeves from
Econolyst, a 3D printing consultancy, think?
I doubt well be printing entire cars, but we can
certainly print parts for cars, especially one-off
bespoke parts.
Bloodhound, the rocket-powered supersonic car,
has printed parts.

This 3D printed engine part weighs 1.3kg less

than the traditionally manufactured one.
Image: Renishaw

Traditionally manufactured engine part.

Image: Renishaw

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will I ever have a 3D printed car?

2. BLOODHOUND
This 1000 mph supersonic car has 3D printed parts.
Dan Johns, lead engineer on the project, explains why:
To reach supersonic speeds Bloodhound must be
light, but the parts must be robust. The nose tip
breaks through the sound barrier at huge force; it
has to be very strong. We designed it with a complex
internal structure that made it very strong and light
and 3D printed it in titanium.

Bloodhound will reach

speeds of 1000mph,
zipping 150 metres in the
blink of an eye.
Image: Bloodhound

The pockets and grooves

inside the nose tip made
it very light: You couldnt
make this complex shape
any other way.
Image: Science Museum

This customised steering

wheel was 3D printed for
Bloodhound driver Andy
Green; its ergonomically
designed especially for him.
Image: Bloodhound

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will I ever have a 3D printed car?

3. ITS ALL IN THE DETAIL

Today youre likely to find 3D printed
personalised parts on a high-end supercar,
not in your mass-produced Ford.
But what about the future?
Phil Reeves thinks it doesnt make sense to
3D print mass-produced parts:
A factory can churn out lots of identical items
much more efficiently. 3D printings edge is
making detailed one-off items that cant be
made efficiently other ways.
But some researchers disagree...

Image: Flickr/Damian Morys Photography

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will I ever have a 3D printed car?

4. BETTER MATERIALS
Candice Majewski, a lecturer in mechanical
engineering at the University of Sheffield, thinks
new materials could change how 3D printing is
used in industry.
As 3D printers become faster and more powerful it
will become efficient to make mass-manufactured
parts. But theres a limit to the range of materials
that you can print with today.
Im researching new materials designed for 3D
printing. With these materials a lot of the parts for
cars, aeroplanes, even household appliances, could
be made with 3D printers.
Will 3D printing become mass-manufacture?

Candice Majewski
Image: Candice Majewski

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will I ever have a 3D printed car?

5. BEST TOOL FOR THE JOB

3D web entrepreneur Seena Rejal had this to say:
In the future I believe industry will reach an
equilibrium point where some things are mass
manufactured and others are 3D printed,
depending on whats most practical and saves
money. This sweet spot will shift as the
technology improves.

Image: Flickr/Public Domain Photos

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Can you 3D print a plane?

1. PLANE PARTS
There arent any 3D printed planes yet. But
engineers could soon use 3D printers to make
plane parts. We asked Jon Meyer, an aerospace
engineer, what the advantages are:
Today industry uses machines to chip away at
blocks of material, sculpting the desired part.
Around 80% of the material is wasted. There
are limits on where the machine can reach. 3D
printers build objects in layers, so we can make
almost any shape with little waste.

Jon Meyer and his team at EADS use an

industrial laser sintering 3D printer to make
aeroplane parts out of titanium.
Image: EADS

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Can you 3D print a plane?

2. SMART DESIGN
3D printing removes some of the limitations
of traditional manufacture. Jon Meyer explains
how this has helped his team improve the
aeroplane parts they make:
In the past, parts were designed to
accommodate the limitations of traditional
manufacture. Now, with 3D printing, we arent
limited in the same way: Designers have new
opportunities to make optimised parts that
are strong as well as light.

Mathematical software helps designers create

parts that are the perfect shape.
Image: EADS

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Can you 3D print a plane?

3. SPEEDY DESIGN
3D printing also speeds up the design process:
With traditional manufacturing a lot of
preparation time is needed to make a new
part; sometimes special tools need to be
developed and built. 3D printers require little
preparation and no special tools. We can test
our designs and make changes much more
easily. This speeds up our design process and
lets us experiment with new ideas.

Aeroplane hinges
Image: Science Museum

THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Can you 3D print a plane?

4. BIGGER AND BETTER

There are limitations normal industrial 3D
printers can only make something as big as a
lunchbox. Will industry ever use 3D printing to
make large parts for planes? Stewart Williams at
Cranfield University thinks its possible:
My team 3D prints large metal parts for planes
and satellites, up to 5 metres in size. Our printer
lays down molten metal in a pattern, using a
welding torch and robotic arm, to create the
shape we want.
So will manufacturers ever print an entire plane?

Normal laser-sintering printers make more

complex metal parts, but they arent as large
or robust as those made by this printer.
Image: Welding Engineering and Laser
Processing Centre, Cranfield University

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Can you 3D print a plane?

5. CHEAPER FLIGHTS?
Stewart Williams thinks not:
Industry isnt trying to print entire planes,
but our large printed plane parts are being
thoroughly tested. Hopefully theyll be in use in
seven years time. If they pass the tests planes
could be made of multiple 3D printed parts, with
a much lower cost of manufacture.
Making huge structures with 3D printing uses so
much less material that the cost of manufacture
can drop by 80%.
Many might hope this will be reflected in the
cost of our tickets!

Large 3D printed plane part.

Image: Welding Engineering and Laser
Processing Centre, Cranfield University

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

How about a phone 3D printed in-one?

1. SUPER-SMART PHONE
Researchers are trying to 3D print electric circuits
into objects. If they succeed, 3D printed phones
could be possible, as well as gadgets with loads of
extra functions.
Chris Tuck, an engineer at the University of
Nottingham, explains:
If I can print enough complex circuitry into an
object to make a phone, then why not make it do
more? A super-smart phone could check your
blood sugar levels and send the results directly to
your doctor great for people with diabetes.
Sounds fab... Can it be done?

A smart object with embedded sensors.

Image: University of Nottingham

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

How about a phone 3D printed in-one?

2. PRINTING CIRCUITS
Chris Tuck explains the challenges of printing
electric circuits into objects:
Its hard to print an insulating material and a
conductive material at the same time. These
materials have different properties: they behave
differently and dont always build up in the
same way. If materials need to be heated to be
printed, once they cool the material can warp,
damaging the circuitry.
But there has been some success

Researchers printed circuits onto this satellite

part. But printing them within an object is
more difficult.
Image: Jennie Hills/Science Museum

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

How about a phone 3D printed in-one?

3. MAKING MAGNETS
Researchers from Weinberg Medical
Physics LLC have printed conducting coils
that create magnetic fields. Researcher
Mario Urdaneta explains:
We print complex electromagnetic coils for
small MRI systems. Doctors will use them
to detect dental cavities or illnesses such
as cancer. MRI scans are better than X-rays
as they dont emit radiation. It takes weeks
to make these MRI coils the traditional way,
but now they can be printed in minutes.
How long until we have printed super-smart
gadgets?

In future these coils could be used to make

better electric car engines.
Image: Weinberg Medical Physics LLC

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

How about a phone 3D printed in-one?

4. WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN?

Richard Hague leads the EPSRC Centre for
Additive Manufacturing at the University of
Nottingham. His research focuses on printing
multifunctional devices. He says:
There are tough challenges ahead for 3D
printing electric devices, and it depends on the
complexity you want. We can print a phone
screen and case, but if you want to print
everything batteries, circuitry, sensors, chips
etc were looking at 20-25 years.

Richard Hague
Image: University of Nottingham

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will everything be 3D printed?

1. FANTASY PRINTING
3D printing technology has come a long way,
with new methods to print more complex
objects, faster, with more materials. You might
imagine a future where printers cater to your
every need, from food to clothes.
In this fantasy printers would build objects up
from tiny building blocks, molecule by molecule.
This sounds a little far fetched, but researchers
are printing on exceedingly small scales.
So how close to the fantasy are they?

Image: Flickr/Creative Tools

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will everything be 3D printed?

2. NANO PRINTING
Researchers at Vienna University of Technology
have developed a 3D printer capable of
nano-scale precision. It prints objects with
100-nanometre detail thats 500 times smaller
than the width of a human hair. Lead researcher
Aleksandr Ovsianikov explains how it works:
Our printer emits short laser pulses that harden
tiny volumes of liquid material to build 3D
structures. Mirrors direct the laser beam so fast
it moves 5 metres per second. The more focused
the laser beam, the higher the degree of detail
that can be achieved.

This model of Tower Bridge model is just a

quarter of a millimetre across.
Image: Additive Manufacturing Technologies
(AMT) group at the Vienna University of
Technology (TU Wien)

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will everything be 3D printed?

3. NEW MATERIALS
Printing with such high precision means scientists
can print new materials. The structure of these
materials can be designed to give them strange
properties. Aleksandr explains some of the things
these new materials could do:
Its possible to make structures that interact with
light in unusual ways. We can design the structure
of the material so it reflects or bends certain
wavelengths of light in any direction.
What can you do with materials that play with light?

Aleksandr Ovsianikov.
Image: Additive Manufacturing Technologies
(AMT) group at the Vienna University of
Technology (TU Wien)

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will everything be 3D printed?

4. INVISIBILITY CLOAKS
Materials that manipulate light like this could be
used for futuristic applications: super-fast wireless
networks, optical computers driven by light, and
even invisible materials. It sounds far-fetched, but
Aleksandr explained that invisibility cloaks arent
just science fiction:
A few years ago 3D printers were used to make
invisibility cloaks that make objects invisible to
microwaves. Printing on the nano-scale opens the
possibility of making these cloaks for visible light.
How do invisibility cloaks work?

3D printed Microwave invisibility cloak

Image: Duke University Photography

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THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRY

Will everything be 3D printed?

5. CAMOUFLAGE
TECHNOLOGY
Yaroslav Urzhumov, a researcher at Duke University,
explains how his 3D printed microwave invisibility
cloak works:
The size and shape of the gaps in the cloak deflect
microwaves and make anything in the middle
invisible to microwaves. This means the object is
invisible to microwave radar. Microwave radar is
used widely in todays world, far beyond military
applications, in traffic cameras, security cameras,
even automatic doors.
An invisibility cloak that works for visible light
would need precise nano-scale gaps. In the future
these cloaks could be made using nano-scale 3D
printing, opening up a world of possibilities for
camouflage technology.

Yaroslav Urzhumov
Image: Duke University Photography

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