Development of the Market of 3D Technologies in Procurement Production

Abstract

The digitalisation process is accelerating everywhere as companies around the world invest in technology to help them adapt to new reality. Additive manufacturing, as a digitalization industry, creates products based on digital models. In the foundry industry, the use of 3D technology is known for: milling foundry models and sand molds, scanning castings and foundry equipment, printing foundry models, sand molds and metal castings. In the latter case, 3D printing is a layer-by-layer deposition of the casting according to a program that reproduces the metal product, with the execution of a small casting bath with a melt, which is “moved” along the layer-by-layer deposition. Additive manufacturing (AM) is capable of creating blanks that are often not possible with other manufacturing methods. The fields of application of 3D printers and scanners are very significant today: from mechanical engineering and instrument making, medicine, construction, military industry and electronics to the fashion industry and the fine arts. From the point of view of the materials used, almost everything goes into printing, from metals to polymers: hard and flexible, hard and soft, combustible and non-combustible. The use of products manufactured by AM is available at any stage of production, both when creating a prototype and as a finished product. Interest in AM is growing with the advent of affordable equipment on the market, which makes it possible to economically move from mass to small-scale production, continuous printing, labor savings, reduce the production cycle, save energy, and the ability to meet individual customer needs (customization). This facilitates the transition to an ecosystem-based economic model that achieves high production efficiency compared to a traditional economy model and a platform-based digital model.