3d Printing Materials - Usage, Benefits And Requirements

3d printing is more like printing than manufacturing. Indeed, it is vastly different from traditional manufacturing as well as printing. You don’t need a set up for manufacturing; you just need a printer and a computer for designing. You don’t also need dice for getting shapes of different items. You can make changes in existing design and manufacture products of different design. 3d printing has enabled such manufacturing with the help of pliable 3d printing materials. Such a mode of manufacturing items is very useful in a scenario where frequent replacement of parts is the order of the day. There are many industries where there are various moving parts which require regular replacement. 3d printing is a boon for these industries.

3d Printing Materials

3d printing is mostly done with plastics. In fact, there are different types of plastics for printing different materials. There is ABS plastic, PLA plastic and more. However, it is not just plastic that you can produce with 3d printers. You can also print products in silver, gold, titanium, gypsum etc. However, it is not easy using these 3d Printing materials. In fact, there are different criteria for using materials in 3d printing. Some of these materials can be used pretty smoothly, while using others entail a lot of problem.

Working of 3d Printing

For 3d printing you need to first design a skeleton of the desired product. The desired materials for 3d printing are deposited on this skeleton layer by layer giving shape to various products. This is why the skeleton is very important. The whole product takes shape around this skeleton, but when it is ready, the skeleton should dissolve in water or liquid. A framework material that dissolves readily in water is a rarity. This is why PLA plastic is so widely used in 3d printing. This kind of plastic dissolves in water.

Materials For 3d Printing

There are various kinds of 3d printing materials. You can get different forms of plastic, gypsum, metals etc for printing purposes. While printing with plastics is easy, it is quite a tough job using metals. Materials for 3d Printing like steel are difficult to print with. To print a product you first need to heat the metal so as to melt it. The molten metal deposits on the underlying skeleton to give shape to the product. However, melting metals is costly and this can increase the cost. This is why plastic is the most commonly used material for 3d printing.

The Supporting Frame

In 3d printing, the molten material gets deposited on a framework. The framework is designed before starting process of printing. After manufacturing the products, the supporting material is dissolved in water or some other liquid. However, to achieve this you need to use a material in the supporting framework which dissolves easily. PLA, a form of plastic, dissolves readily in water. This is why this particular form of plastic is widely used in 3d printing. You need to dip the finished product in water to get the product in final shape. However, purity also depends on raw materials. So you need to procure only pure materials for 3d printing.