3D printing is opening up a new world of possibilities, revolutionising engineering, prototyping, product design and manufacturing, but companies and engineers need to be prepared to deal with a range of new hazards and risks.
Gail Greatorex is Director of Product Safety Solutions. During Griffith University’s Beyond 3D Printing event, held 24 November in Brisbane, she warned that while 3D printing allows greater flexibility in product design and engineering, the ability to turn small offices and homes into manufacturing facilities brings with it many potential implications for product safety.
“In the same way that anyone can now sell goods online, 3D printing will allow anyone to make products,” she explained.
Consumers and enthusiasts can use 3D printing to manufacture toys for children, design and create goods to sell, manufacture spare parts for machinery, redesign existing products, and invent whole new products.
“The issue of course lies in the fact that anyone can now design, make and sell a product without formal testing or research and regardless of whether they’ve had training,” Greatorex said.
In order to counter these product safety hazards, all sectors need to play a part, whether it be product engineers who can provide consultation and recommendations, the 3D printing industry, the supply sector, governments, educators and consumers.
The Beyond 3D Printing event aimed to help industries transition to new business practices, to identify new opportunities and to protect themselves from becoming out of sync with global developments, even as developments in 3D printing are moving at a rapid pace.
The event was organised by Griffith University’s Program Leader of Industrial Design, Associate Professor Jennifer Loy.
“Wohler’s latest report predicts that 3D printing will be a two billion dollar industry within five years,” Professor Loy said.
“3D printing is not just an add-on technology within the digital landscape – it has matured and now completely changes what is possible.
“It can impact the world of fashion, medicine, automotive, engineering, criminology and manufacturing and so many other fields that businesses need to be open to rethinking customer relationships and product possibilities.”
“In the last five years alone we’ve seen exponential growth with what it can do and major companies, such as Airbus and Lockheed Martin are leading the way in utilising the technology for topologically optimised industrial applications.”
In addition to Greatorex, the event also featured experts like Dr Lionel Dean (Future Factories); Professor Olaf Diegel (Lund University); Professor Ian Gibson (Co-Author of Additive Manufacturing Technologies); Dr Matt Dargusch (UQ Centre for Advanced Materials Processing and Manufacturing).