What is additive manufacturing technology for?

The role of additive manufacturing technology is as follows:

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is based on digital model files, using adhesive materials such as powder metal or plastic, and building objects by printing layer by layer. After years of development, China's additive manufacturing technology has reached the international advanced level in many fields.

Advantages of additive manufacturing

Compared with traditional production methods, additive manufacturing has three unique advantages.

Advantage 1: Personalized customization

Additive manufacturing can print almost any three-dimensional shape, which has high design freedom and supports customized design, so that designers can freely create parts with better performance or lower cost than traditional substitutes. For example, an additive titanium alloy bracket produced by Airbus is 30% lighter than the previous parts and does not affect performance or durability.

Advantage 2: High accuracy.

At present, the accuracy of 3D printing equipment can be controlled below 0.3 mm. For example, in the field of building repair, traditional large-scale wooden works are all made by hand, and there are inevitably errors in accuracy. The computer 3D model of 3D printing, with millimeter as the calculation unit, is much higher in accuracy than the traditional restoration method.

Advantage 3: short cycle

Because 3D printing does not need molds or fixed tools, it usually takes several hours or even tens of minutes to print a model, which is very suitable for mass customization. Because time-consuming tool manufacturing and processing operations are eliminated, product development and production are accelerated and time to market can be effectively shortened.

China has made great progress in electronic and electrical additive manufacturing technology. It is called three-dimensional circuit technology (SEA, SLS+LDS). Additive technology in the field of electronic appliances is a kind of green circuit forming technology developed on the basis of existing additive technology, which is different from the traditional two-dimensional printed circuit board.

The traditional printed circuit board is the grain of the electronic industry. Generally, the traditional environment-friendly subtractive manufacturing process is adopted, that is, the copper foil is etched to form a metal conductive circuit. The new generation of additive manufacturing technology adopts an additive process: the surface of the product is irradiated by laser first, and then soaked and deposited in the liquid medicine.

One way to combine this technology with the additive manufacturing of laser layered manufacturing is to add special components to SLS powder, first carry out 3D printing (additive manufacturing and molding), then laser out circuit patterns along the surface with a micro-navigation 3D circuit laser machine, and then electroless plating into metal circuits.

Increasing material manufacturing

SLS+LDS technology involved in the manufacturing process of stereo circuits is a manufacturing process invented by local enterprises in China. It is a branch application technology of additive manufacturing in the field of electronic and electrical products. It also involves core elements such as laser materials, laser machines and post-treatment chemicals.

At present, stereo circuit technology has become the main manufacturing technology of high-end smart phone antenna, and the industry has risen to stereo circuit industry.