The Economist has forecasted 3D Printing to be the third industrial revolution due to its prospects of driving a new type of manufacturing industry. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his National Day Rally 2013 that we should 3D print things that make a difference to our lives.
Opposed to a conventional machining process which takes away excess material from a block of workpiece, 3D Printing or Rapid Prototyping (RP) or Additive Manufacturing (AM) produces parts by building one layer upon another in a horizontal manner. This offers many advantages over machining limitations such as the capability to produce complex and difficult-to-machine models (eg. a sphere in a thin-necked bottle, straight corners of pockets in typical engineering components, a small, intricate jewellery ring). Jigs and fixtures are also no longer needed.
Because 3D Printing, RP or AM is linked to CAD/CAM systems, it is able to produce a component in a short turnaround time. As a result, it has great potential, especially for today's products which have very short product life.
There are currently no less than 30 different 3D Printing, RP or AM systems namely, Stereolithography (SLA), Polyjet Technology, Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM), Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), Three-Dimensional Printing (3DP), MCor Technology, Two-Laser-Beam Technology, Solid Creation System (SCS) and EOS's EOSINT Systems. Among the newer systems are Plastic Sheet Lamination (PSL), Arcam's Electron Beam Melting and Efesto's LENS Technology. The course will explain the working principles of the mature technologies and compare their strengths and weaknesses.
Trainer: Professor Chua Chee Kai
- 12, 14, 15 and 16 January 2015 (Click here
May Session - 19, 21, 22 and 25 May 2015 (Click here to register)