Why the emergence of 3D printing is different from the arrival of CAD software? The answer could save you from a terrible destiny …

Smartphones

Humanoids delivering packages

Drones taking aerial shots

Robot surgeons

Online platforms for watching films

And 3D printers

What destiny awaits your company in a few years? Will it survive the hurricane of technological progress or will it collapse like the house of the three little pigs?

Discover the important differences between the emergence of a 3D printer in industry and the arrival of CAD, which will save you from a costly and risky investment

It was 1967 when portable computers were an invention which you only read about in science-fiction books; yet, today, it is thanks to one of these futuristic gadgets, that you are reading these lines.

In those days you were still writing on an Olivetti Studio 45 portable typewriter, and while your fingers were tapping away on the keyboard, one of the first Siemans telephones were noisily ringing in the background, disturbing your train of thought.

If you could go back and say to the person you were then, that technological progress would change the world and your daily life so radically, perhaps  you would not have believed it.

Even in the world of work there were big innovations: in the 80’s the first hardware appeared taking the place of the computers which took up the space of a whole room, and served as archives for information, databases, and other administrative functions.

Even learning to use a computer was a procedure which required time and study; those technicians who refused to learn how to use a PC, hoping to be able to continue their work in the same way, had to change their mind and train, trying to retrieve the time lost.

Many technicians and designers turned up their noses and rested on their laurels when the novelty of CAD drawings appeared on the scene, a development which goes hand in hand with the computer.

Even if CAD had already been developed in 1950, this technology had been left unused for a good 30 years because the small cheap computers were not ready to support this type of technology.

CAD software or Autocad was introduced on the market in 1982 and served to produce bi or tridimensional drawings through the use of a computer.

At the beginning the software could only manage simple bidimensional drawings until they developed to produce more complex 3D structures and cinematic simulations.

Before the introduction of CAD, we used a drafting machine, consisting of an oblique drawing board with a pair of scales mounted to form a right angle on an articulated protractor head that allows an angular rotation.

For many technicians the drawing machine was considered to be a timeless and irreplaceable instrument, so much so, that not all companies adopted the use CAD in their production chain.

The most nostalgic technicians, reluctant to changes, claimed that emotional intensity could be perceived in a hand-drawn design which the computer could not convey and also that work was faster using a drawing machine.

 This resistance to change in the end brought those companies and those technical departments to extinction

while those companies whichaccepted the technological innovation with enthusiasm profited and prospered.

The story of the Italian company Bieffe SPA, already operating in the field of technical design, is an example.

The  owner Mr Anselmi exploited the wind of change to his advantage and invested in CAD 2D design, when the technology was still very expensive and his competitors did not possess it.

The heart of the production of Bieffe was the drawing machine, the very drawing board which many technicians were reluctant to abandon.

At the time buying CAD 2D cost the earth, because as well as the software itself, which cost 18 million, you needed the a computer (30 million), a graphic monitor (18 million) and a plotter pen (23 million).

Just think that a Mercedes in the 80’s cost 25 million…

There was still a long way to go before the emergence of CAD 3D.

Investing in CAD was not only a question of courage but also one of total faith in the fact that the technology would have substituted the drawing machine and that it would  become the daily bread for all company sectors, and that is what has happened.

Innovation in your life and in your work can be a friend or an enemy with which you have to deal every day: today to talk of drawing machines and typewriters seems like talking about prehistory, but once you thought that those instruments would last forever.

Today 3D printing, considered to be the fourth industrial revolution since Forbes, could seem the CAD of today which comes to substitute your old traditional machines.

But this is not true…

While CAD completely substitutes the drawing machine and is necessary for any company which deals with design, we cannot say the same about 3D printing, for two important differences:

Here are the differences which distinguish the emergence of 3D printing from the arrival of CAD drawings

You read on newspapers and blogs that companies in all sectors are exploiting 3D printing so you could think that it is a technology which, sooner or later, all companies will have to adopt in their production chain.

You read about aeronautic and aerospace components, cakes, houses, teeth, packaging and car parts produced with additive systems, and you ask yourself how this technology could be of interest to your Italian small and medium enterprise in the mechanical sector.

Unluckily, however, I have to debunk an urban legend, which if you ignore, could make you fall into a trap, which could be lethal for your company: 

3D printing is not economically viable for all companies

 Before entrusting your money to a salesman of standard 3D printers, without checking with preliminary tests, whether this technology will make you save on production costs, whether it will make you earn more and produce faster, you must know that your production may not be suitable for 3D.

While with CAD software you were sure that it would help speed up and improve your work; with 3D printing you can have this certaintly only if you print YOUR components beforehand, and then check how much it has cost you to produce with this technology and how much time you have saved, compared to production times used with traditional methods.

If you do not earn more, spend less and produce faster with a 3D printer, compared to what you are doing now with subtractive methods, then there is no sense in investing in this technology.

In a few years time not all companies will have invested in 3D, but only those which can really profit both in economic terms and in terms of resources.

With a 3D printer it would be too costly to print a simple component in a batch of thousands of pieces, for example, a flat sheet metal or a smooth cylinder, which you can find on the market already ready to cut or a large piece like a rotation shaft.

A 3D printer works magic however, when it is dealing with the production of impossible geometrics, that is complex components with holes and internal channels, which are unreachable by any modern milling machine.

With a 3D printer you can carry out complex assembling in one single process, while with traditional methods you have to fit various pieces together, wasting a lot of time which translates into an enormous increase in costs.

With 3D printing you can produce impossible geometrics in one single process, quickly and saving a ton of money

If you want to know more about impossible geometrics, read this article.

The second FUNDAMENTAL difference between the emergence of CAD and that of 3D printing is that, while design software substituted the drawing machine:

3D printing does not completely substitute

the chip removal method

As I have already mentioned, 3D printing still has some technological limitations which does not make it suitable for all types of production and uses.

The problem is that in our world you do not have the chance, except for what you will read soon, of finding out if your production is suitable for 3D printing, without spending tons of euro to buy a printer.

In the black forest of additive manufacturing you only have two choices: either you resort to 3D printing Service which have costly prices, make you wait for ages, put your online CAD designs at risk and force you to be tied to one supplier; or, you go to producers of 3D standard printers, who promise to speed up your production, without giving you a shred of evidence.

You could also decide not to do anything, to continue producing with the methods you have always used, let yourself go with the flow to see where it takes you.

Unluckily, “seeing how it goes” is the same attitude which caused the extinction of technicians who did not want to learn how to use CAD.

Perhaps your production could be faster and you could earn more with a 3D printer or perhaps not; the only way to discover this without investing millions in a 3D printer is:

3D4YOU, the only solution which allows you to check if a 3D printer will speed up your production, will make you save and earn more, with preliminary tests on your components

In the course 3D4YOU, you will receive your components printed in 3D accompanied by a final detailed document which will show you;

1)the economic costs of printing your components in 3D: you will know if it is worthwhile to produce, with additive methods, the pieces you are producing today with subtractive methods, without risking your money;

2)the financial costs; if a 3D printer reduces running and production costs, allowing you to increase your company earnings, your income will also increase and you could live a more luxurious life without worries;

3) the production times of printing your components in 3D; producing faster, you can beat the competition and increase your circle of customers ;

Apart from not forking out capital to buy a 3D printer, by accessing 3D4YOU, you will not be losing money because you can exploit the “zero risk” guarantee

With “0 risk” guarantee, you will have all your money BACK, if, for whatever reason, you are not satisfied with 3D4YOU or it has not been useful

For whatever reason, do not hesitate!

3D4YOU has been created to evaluate, together with you and your technicians and my technicians, experts in additive systems, if a 3D printer could be a future worthwhile investment for you, or not, therefore there is no right or wrong answer at the end of the course; we will make an evaluation on your specific case which could also be negative.

It could be that 3D printing will never be suitable for your company or that this technology could become your battle horse to grow and prosper; you may never know without 3D4YOU, because in the world of additive systems nobody else will give you this chance without risking your money and time.

You cannot refuse to check out the use of new technology, just as you cannot impulsively invest in new technology, because you blindly believe in progress: in both cases you risk the extinction of your company.

For further information on 3D4YOU just click on this link or on the red button at the bottom of  the page and enjoy the video.

Follow the instructions on the page and enter the forest of 3D printing with a super GUARANTEE.

P.S. Unfortunately I can only personally take care of 4 companies a month and places are running out. Get informed today and be contacted by one of our technical assistants to find out more.

P.P.S. if you access 3D4YOU premium, you will have a gift worth 840 euro, which consists in a FULL and CUSTOMIZED training on how to use the 3D on your production.  Just for this gift it is worth registering now.