Small Business Enterprise - SBDC August 2022

Additive manufacturing and 3D printers for small business

Additive Manufacturing and 3D printers are fast becoming a required part of any agile manufacturer these days. So just what can this technology do for the small manufacturer?

3D Printing Technology

3D printing has come a long way since its roots in the mid to late 1980s, and the accessibility of this technology for the small manufacturer is a rather recent event. Today there are a number of manufacturers of 3D printing systems and materials at all price levels for the manufacturer wanting to use this rather unique technology. We will focus only on the top three that are within the reach of small manufacturers: FDM, SLS and SLM.

FDM (or fused deposition modeling) is perhaps the most inexpensive 3D printing system a business or manufacturer can get integrated into their business. This technology takes a spool of plastic filament, melts it and deposits the melted material onto a printing surface in X, Y and Z coordinates. The model is printed one layer at a time and incredible detail and resolution are possible with materials such as ABS, PETG, TPU and even nylon. FDM systems start under $300 and can go into thousands of dollars depending on features needed.

SLS (or selective laser sintering) is a technology that takes a powdered material and uses laser technology to fuse the power into a 3D model layerby-layer similar to how FDM technology works. The SLS category allows for more industrial applications and is in the middle cost category — tens of thousands of dollar price ranges to get into the game with this technology. SLS materials include nylon thermoplastics, mineral-filled or glass-filled powered materials, polypropylene and even thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU).

SLM (or selective laser melting) also includes DMLS and EBM technologies. These technologies use a metalized powder and lasers to melt the metal into 3D metal parts. This category of nonplastic/polymeric systems offers a business exciting possibilities as you are essentially printing in metal. These systems can cost tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to get these systems, but you are able to print high definition and functional parts without machining, tooling or other associated machining costs.

How Can Small Business Benefit from Additive Manufacturing?

The big three additive manufacturing technologies have some differences in cost and type of materials they work with, but all of them offer accessibility for a manufacturer to a wide selection of capabilities once only reserved for the big players in manufacturing. These technologies give a small business the ability to create custom machine fixturing, ISD-prevention devices for manufacturers, safety devices for use on the shop floor, tooling, assembly aids and other types of manufacturing aids.

Manufacturers also have the ability to quickly prototype and visualize changes in design to drive parts consolidation, spin up quick iterative cycle changes and even complex/low run production parts. Many large automotive manufacturers are currently embracing these technologies to manufacture the products they sell.

This Technology is Ready for Small Business

For small business, this technology is “ready for primetime.” Additive manufacturing offers entrepreneurs another tool to get faster to market, lower costs to offer difficult or complex parts production, have the precision and complexity of conventional machining and reduction of many safety risks, tooling and maintenance costs associated with conventional manufacturing.

Michael Rogers is consultant in cyber security and new emerging technologies for the Rockford SBDC.