LOCALISED ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING FOR PRODUCTION (LAMP)
This is my vision for using technology to return localised
manufacturing in Australia (for those who don't know: the
manufacturing industry in Australia has largely gone) and other
such western economies. Key reasons are that Aussies cost more to
employ, Aussie factories cost more to build and maintain, and
Aussie regulations require more expensive environments for
employees to work in. The one small point that we do have in favour
of making our own stuff is that it doesn't then have to be shipped
here, but that's clearly not enough of an advantage (global
pandemics aside).
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
3D printing technology has rapidly expanded in recent years, not
just with home 3D printers but also with more varied commercial
offerings. Plastics can be printed in full colour and very high
detail using machines made by such big names as HP Enterprise.
Metals can be printed by similarly sized machines, or ones big as a
shipping container able to print large items such as bicycles.
Glass can even be 3D printed. There has also been a lot of work
done with printing electronics. Circuit boards, even electronic
components themselves, are able to be printed. Instead of circuit
boards, electronics can be embedded in the structure of a device
(even 3D printed clothing), perhaps with bare Integrated Circuit
dies automatically inserted and bond wires connected during the
printing process. 3D printed batteries able to be built as part of
a product's case have been demonstrated, as well as 3D antennas
with much superior gain to conventional 2D designs.
ON-DEMAND MANUFACTURE
So where I'm going with this is that current state-of-the-art 3D
printing technologies, if they are able to be combined into a
single manufacturing operation, have the promise of producing
finished consumer products, including complex electronic items,
from mostly raw materials. Instead of making individual parts for
complex devices currently assembled by low-cost human labor
overseas, the whole device can be manufactured in one automated
process. Therefore there is no assembly, so far fewer employees and
corresponding equipment are required, so less factory area is also
required.
Furthermore, most material requirements would no longer be specific
to individual products. Electronic components (besides some
requiring more manufacturing precision like ICs), bearings,
springs, could be made to all sorts of specifications from the same
raw materials and built right inside the manufactured device where
they are required. Minimal re-tooling should be required to
manufacture different devices too, eliminating the need for an
economy of scale where a sufficient quantity of identical items
needs to be produced in order to justify the set-up cost. One
sufficiently equipped 3D printer might therefore be able to
manufacture the entire stock for a particular store, producing
multiple different types and models of products within one day.
HARDWARE LIKE SOFTWARE
This versatility also enables rapid and specialised development of
physical products, akin to the software industry today. By removing
the huge chain of traditional production and distribution processes
to be replaced with a single manufacturing step, designs are able
to be reproduced and customised anywhere, from the moment of their
digital publication. This is the feature that has caused commercial
use of 3D printing to currently be dominated by prototyping
applications - manufacturing single parts of devices to be
traditionally manufactured and assembled later, but without the
excessive time and expense of setting up conventional manufacturing
proceses just to produce an individual test part. But prototyping
may be just the humble start of 3D printing's role in manufacturing.
Already 3D printing has become popular for adding trivial
customisation to products sold to consumers. Custom shapes and
colouring of plastic parts for otherwise traditionally manufactured
and assembled items. But the real potential lies in versatility of
being able to manufacture devices to completely different designs,
designs shared on the internet. Instead of just a small collection
of models for each type of item being stocked based on availability
and popularity, any design publised on the internet from anywhere
in the world could be produced to meet local demand. Prefer the old
model? Have it made instead. Need a design modified for someone
with a disability? Get it from the same place as for regular
models, and for a similar price. Need a special tool for your new
hobby? Pick it up tomorrow from your local store instead of waiting
for it to come from a specialist supplier at the other end of the
country.
Designs could be licensed from recognised designers who conform to
industry standards, able now to endlessly update and customise
their offerings akin to software developers. Free open-source
designs could be published by anyone and break the hold of
closed-source commercialisation in the hardware world, which is
currently enforced by the initial investment required to have
devices prototyped and manufactured. To buy a device made to a free
design, the cost would be just for physical requirements of
manufacture, without regard for how uncommon or specialised it may
be.
THE 'LAMP' ECONOMY
The latest developments in product retail is the emergence of
Amazon and similar companies. From across the globe products from
countless factories (themselves supplied by various distributors of
parts that they don't make themselves) and shipped or flown to
massive warehouses to be stacked in anticipation of a click from an
online shopper. An army of people run around to grab the items and
send them out again on a journey through the suburbs, towns,
states, to the house of the person who ordered. Meanwhile those
items that never recieve their click gather dust until eventually
being discarded as worthless.
What would such a company look like if they could 3D print products
from digital designs themselves? Instead of the thousands of
factories from across the globe each sending their merchandise to
the one massive warehouse, only a few suppliers, mostly of raw
materials, are needed. As production of raw materials is already
able to be highly automated and efficient, local industries in
Australia still exist and are more competative. The warehouse
doesn't need to be huge either, because no longer do all those
products need to be inefficiently kept in their assembled and
packaged form, but just as material in bulk storage and digital
designs in which hold their potential. So it's possible to build
more warehouses/factories, and locate them closer to the people
buying the products. Then only the raw materials need to be
transported across the country, and the inefficient transport of
manufactured products only needs to happen within the local
community, also with the option of people picking things up
immediately themselves. Instead of an army in each warehouse,
employees are spread out amongst the community in local
warehouses/factories, manufacturing and distributing just the items
that cater for their specific local demand.
With this approach, a lot of the of the dependence of Australia and
most other western countries on foreign governments and economies
to supply physical goods is gone. Also there is far less reliance
on fossil fuel powered ships, planes, and trucks, now needed mainly
just for the much more efficient transport of raw materials in
bulk. At the same time, consumers receive more convenience and far
more choice with the products available for them to buy locally.
EMPLOYMENT
One issue with this plan is that while it brings manufacturing back
to Australia, 3D Printing does this largely by replacing the need
for human jobs. While operation and maintenance of the machines
offers some potential for new employment, it would not be the same
manufacturing industry that left us before. Nevertheless it is
worth remembering that this industry has already gone, and 'LAMP'
offers a more economically and ethically beneficial alternative to
the current replacement of Australian workers with underpaid
foreigners overseas in unsafe working environments.
ENVIRONMENT
The disadvantage of 3D printing complex products as completed units
that don't require assembly is that they also can't be pulled apart
for repair or recycling. In the past this may have lead to
significantly more waste and a shorter product life-cycle. But
today, as with manufacturing jobs, this battle has been lost
already. Devices are designed to be assembled, but often with
little or no consideration to disassembly or repair. Information
and parts required to repair electronics are now very rarely
available, and items of all sorts are generally recycled just as
mixed materials because disassembling them to separate their
individual parts and materials is too difficult to be economically
viable. Assembled consumer goods and devices are already treated as
sealed, solid, objects, there's not much to be lost now from making
them so.
One advantage of the on-demand ability of 3D printing is that
unwanted stock is not likely to be produced in quantity. The local
demand for individual items can directly determine which ones are
manufactured in advance of being ordered. As such the problem of
over supply, that can cause so much waste, is largely eliminated.
REPRAP
A 3D printer that can produce consumer electronics might in theory
be able to produce a 3D printer itself. This is in fact the core
motivation behind the RepRap project, from which was born the
recent home 3D Printer industry, to design a self-replicating
machine:
https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap
While some of the most recent designs have managed to use a
majority of 3D printed parts in the structure of the machine, there
is only so much they can do while limited to building with the
single material of plastic. Their difficulty is a focus on designs
that are cheap and easy enough for individuals to build for their
own use. The technology behind developments for printing other
materials such as metals, glass, and the ingredients for electronic
components, is very expensive, precise, and often proprietary.
Initially 3D printers combining these technologies will be far too
expensive for individuals, and probably more complex than the
manufacturing ability of models targeted at manufacturing consumer
electronics. Such machines within the reach of the RepRap project
are probably much further away.
CONCLUSION
This is not purely about technology. It's about a change in
thinking about how products are made and distributed. In fact it is
a return, in part, to our economic structure as it was before
industrialisation - when local craftsmen made their products in low
volumes to serve the needs of only their local community. A
blacksmith, candlemaker, cobbler, knew the 'public' designs shared
within their trade and could choose and adapt them to meet the
specific needs of local customers. A few such businesses have
continued, particularly in the fashion industry which is now
beginning to adopt machines for 3D printing textiles and completed
garments. But the technical complexity and variety of wares bought
for a modern household has gone far beyond the potential of manual
craft. Only now is it becoming possible that machines replace
craftsmen not by producing individual goods in one large factory,
but a variety of them locally in the community. The tangled global
web of manufacturing and distribution that has been built around
huge centralised facilities might soon begin to unwind as 3D
printing technology restores a distributed, local, manufacturing
economy.
REFERENCES
I've read a lot more related to this application of 3D Printing,
but these are some links that I can find quickly [read: I
remembered to bookmark]:
Conductive metal inks help Draper develop 3D printed electronics
for IoT market
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20170913-3d-printed-electronics-helping-ma-engineering-firm-draper-embrace-iot-market.html
German scientists using ViscoTec print heads to 3D print
multi-material electric motor parts
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20170922-german-scientists-using-viscotec-print-heads-to-3d-print-multi-material-electric-motor-parts.html
University of Pennsylvania engineers 3D printed transistors made
from nanocrystal inks
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160408-university-of-pennsylvania-engineers-3d-printed-transistors-made-from-nanocrystal-inks.html
BotFactory announces Squink upgrade that lets you 3D print
multi-layer PCBs
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160427-botfactory-announces-squink-upgrade-that-lets-you-3d-print-multi-layer-pcbs.html
New 3D printed graphene super batteries by Swinburne researchers
will last a lifetime
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160726-new-3d-printed-graphene-super-batteries-by-swinburne-researchers-will-last-a-lifetime.html
Functional 3D prints with circuits now possible with Continuous
Composites' multi-material CSM 3D printer, print speed up to 1200
ipm
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160804-continuous-composites-3d-printing-with-rapid-multi-material-csm-3d-printing-of-copper-fibers-and-epoxies.html
Electroloom Mini 3D clothing printer creates seamless, wearable
fabric in under 20 minutes
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160307-electroloom-mini-3d-clothing-printer-creates-seamless-wearable-fabric-in-under-20-minutes.html
Wikipedia - Printed Electronics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_electronics
- The Free Thinker, 2020
