3D printing, also known as 3D printing, appeared in the mid-1990s.3D printing is a rapid prototyping technology, based on digital model files, that USES bonded materials such as powdered metal or plastic to build objects layer by layer.The emergence of 3D printing technology has overturned the traditional processing method, and it is widely used in mold manufacturing, industrial design and other fields to manufacture models or direct manufacture of products.As technology matures, 3D printing is used in jewelry, footwear, construction, engineering and construction, automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, firearms and other fields.

In order to explore new possibilities of THE application of 3D printing technology in the field of industrial equipment protection products, our technical team visited China 3D Printing Culture Museum to seek inspiration and inspiration.Founded on July 19, 2017, China 3D Printing Cultural Museum was officially awarded by the Industrial Culture Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It is the only museum in China with the theme of "3D printing", which has multiple functions such as cultural history education, cultural experience and cultural derivative consumption.

According to the difference of consumable form and forming principle, the current mainstream 3D printing technology can be roughly divided into melt forming, granular material forming and light polymerization forming.According to different types of printing consumables, 3D printing technology can be divided into non-metallic 3D printing and metal 3D printing.Among them, the most widely used is melt deposition molding technology (FDM), only applicable to non-metallic materials.The working principle is to melt the filamentous thermoplastic material through the nozzle, then spray and extrudate it, deposit it on the previous layer of solidified material, accumulate and solidify to form.

The museum's exhibits above show how widely 3D printing has been used to create dresses, chairs, decorations and medical models.In the future, refinement and flexibility will be the key problems for 3D printing to overcome.

Take the welding gun shield of our company as an example. Due to the different welding gun structure and processing tools of each brand and model, the matching welding gun shield must be customized according to the requirements of "one gun for one style".For welding gun protection, in addition to the mainstream soft welding gun shielding, in recent years, there are also many customers put forward the intention of using hard welding gun housing.The soft welding gun shield is mainly made of high performance textile materials by industrial sewing machine, which is more soft and fit. The appearance and shape of the welding gun change with the movement of the welding gun in the process of use, which is easy to store.The rigid shell of welding gun is made of plastic products, and its appearance is fixed. It does not change with the operation of welding gun, so the appearance is better.The main method of making the shell of hard welding gun is to add anti-aging agent and flame retardant agent into the plastic particles, and make it by traditional plastic molding technology such as pressing molding or blow molding.Traditional plastic molding is extremely dependent on molds. If each rigid welding gun shell is moulded separately, the cost will be very expensive, resulting in a waste of resources, and the production cycle is long, so it is not suitable for the production characteristics of welding gun shield, such as small batch and multiple styles.

According to the working principle of 3D printing, each article can only be printed separately, which is conducive to the diversification of products and is very suitable for the personalized customization features of small order quantity and changeable styles in the field of industrial equipment protection.For 3D printing equipment, manufacturing a gorgeous and complex object does not consume more time, skill or cost than printing a simple object. Its manufacturing cost will not change with the complexity of product structure, which gives great design space.Therefore, 3D printing is not limited by moQ and product structure. It only needs to transfer the pre-designed protective product drawings of industrial equipment to 3D printing equipment, which can be customized quickly and flexibly, realizing the customization of "one shot for one style" and greatly reducing the delivery time.

I believe that in the near future, 3D printing technology will be able to play a big role in the field of industrial equipment protection.