How 3D Printing Could Speed Up Development Of New Models?

There is a lot of attention that 3D printing is drawing. And fittingly so. A 3D printing is nothing but a printing which has 3 dimensions. Our normal printer gives print in 2 dimensions, (X & Y). 3D printing adds the third dimension - Z. And it does not use ink, but material. Because of using material, we get a 3 D print which resembles the model that we want. We have 2D drawing in autocad and 3D drawing in different software. 3D printing makes the 3D drawing a reality. 

Whenever new models are developed - be it of vehicles, goggles, bags, bottles, child parts, assembly, building, chair, etc, the prototype making cost is very high. You need to make a mould, cast it, machine it, wire cut it, spark it, etc. After working so hard and heavy capital investment, we get a prototype and sometimes we get to know that all this is wrong and have to rework it. Maximum amount of capital investment goes into tooling & machining. For making prototype of each type of drawing, that many tooling dies will have to be made and each of these dies needs investment. And the time taken by this process is also quite high. It may need anywhere between 2 days to 2 months for development of these prototypes. 

All this fuss comes to end in 3D printing. In 3D printing, you will just need to make a 3D model. If you need 2-3 options, make those models and simply print. You will see that these models are converted into reality in a matter of hours. Whenever we see something physically, it is easier to make a decision. So, once this 3D model comes in your hand, you can understand whether all things are working, which option is better. And all this in a few hours time. Maximum a couple of days. 

Can you imagine how fast things will change then? Today development is slow because of two things - (i) cost of development & (ii) time of development. But when both of these are not limitation, then there will be a lot of requirement for designers. More designs will come out. More models will come out. And this is all about prototypes only. 3D printing is already going ahead in terms of printing bridges or workable models. Now, how good that would be! Hail the 3D printing.