Among them, selective laser sintering technology is sintering under laser irradiation. In the process of laser sintering, in order to prevent metal oxidation, metal powder must be sealed in a container. The main characteristics of laser sintering technology are the use of a variety of materials, no shape requirements, high precision and high material utilization. At the same time, we should also see that laser sintering is slow, low in intensity and expensive in printer. Laser melting technology is a direct forming method of metal parts developed on the basis of laser sintering technology, and it is the latest development of rapid prototyping technology. Laser melting technology has many advantages. Can be directly made into terminal metal products, omitting intermediate transition links, and can obtain metal entities with metallographic structure. The density is close to 100%, and the workpiece also has high tensile strength, low roughness and high dimensional accuracy. It is suitable for all kinds of workpieces with complex shapes, especially for models with complex irregular structures inside. Can 3D printing promote the third industrial revolution? Terry Waller, President of Waller Partners: I think many factors are merging into a new industrial revolution. Because all industries have been affected by it, not only the traditional aviation, automobile, medical care and other industries, but also jewelry, fashion, food and so on, as well as textiles and human tissues. I believe that in the future we can print kidneys, viscera or fingers, as well as heart organs and limbs. We can print out all the parts of the body and implant them in patients. I think this is a very exciting era, this perfect storm is gathering, and we are preparing for the next industrial revolution. Zhang Wenwu, researcher of Ningbo Institute of Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences: As a part of digital, distributed and personalized manufacturing technology, 3D printing is a very influential technology. However, I think the new industrial revolution should not be limited to 3D printing. In addition to the new energy revolution, information revolution and manufacturing revolution mentioned earlier, the new industrial revolution should also include the humanistic revolution. The energy revolution and the information revolution should be promoted by the humanistic revolution. Today we are talking about cultural and creative industries, and everyone is talking about the current commercial interests. But I think in the longer term, we are entering a very profound humanistic revolution, or a revolution in the evolution of human civilization. Can 3D printing technology enter the homes of ordinary people and have a subversive impact on life? Shi Yusheng, Co-Chairman of China 3D Printing Alliance and Professor of Materials College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology: I think this technology will definitely enter the family in the future. In addition to printing household necessities, 3D printing has a great potential, and that is education. China traditional culture attaches great importance to education. If there is a 3D printer, children can leave the Internet, create their own toys and print them out. In the future, 3D printers will enter the family, which is especially helpful for children's education. But the problems now are: first, the families in China have not realized this technology; Second, the cost of this technology is still a bit high, and third, the material problem. At present, family education can be done with existing materials. But if you want to build functional home parts, you need to pass the material barrier. Wu Chengxuan, General Manager of German EOS Greater China: I think intellectual property is a problem that we must face squarely. There seems to be no clear solution now. So I think we can only discuss better methods through the whole industry or alliance or ISO. Of course, I don't think this will be a cross-industry issue. In my opinion, the essence of intellectual property rights is everyone's cognition, and China, as a leading country in this industry, needs to mobilize everyone's enthusiasm and do its part. Feng Tao: I think the issue of intellectual property rights is a serious problem for enterprises in China. Domestic enterprises should be said to be blank in this respect. Although many enterprises have some patents, these patents may not be for the protection of property rights, but for sales, obtaining high-tech certificates, and so on. So our patents and what we protect are not very clear. It can be said that we are facing very severe challenges on the issue of intellectual property rights. What is the strategic significance of 3D printing technology to manufacturing industry? Shi Yusheng: First, 3D printing is an important way to enhance China's innovation ability and realize the creation from China to China; Second, 3D printing will greatly reduce the cost of product R&D and innovation, shorten the innovation R&D cycle, and simplify production to improve product quality and performance. In the past, some products that need to be manufactured separately can be manufactured as a whole through 3D printing technology. Third, 3D printing can produce parts that cannot be processed by traditional processes, which greatly enhances the process realization ability; Fourthly, 3D printing improves the machinability of difficult-to-machine materials and expands the engineering field. Fifthly, 3D printing opens the green manufacturing mode and saves materials, which will bring about changes in traditional design methods, including the design methods of parts and molds. The traditional method is manufacturing process-oriented design, but now it may be performance-oriented design; In addition, 3D printing will change the traditional manufacturing mode and form a new manufacturing system. The future manufacturing mode may be personalized manufacturing, and one person may be a manufacturing factory. Support the realization of personalized customization and advanced innovation mode, and give birth to some professional innovation service modes. At present, what is the development trend of global 3D printing technology? Terry Wohlers, President of Wohlers Partnership: At present, 3D printing technology has attracted more and more attention, which has never happened in this industry in the past 25 years. We can see that this is a snowball effect, and this snowball is getting bigger and bigger. The first major trend is that low-cost desktop printers, that is, personal 3D printers have increased from more than 23,000 in 2065,438+065,438+0 to 35,000, and are becoming ubiquitous. The second major trend is that these systems have achieved some very important applications. For example, GE Aviation uses our 3D printing in the aviation field. It used to be welded, so the parts were redesigned by 3D printing and added to the manufacturing process. The manufacturing process involves design, and many excellent designers are promoting the application of this technology in various fields. How big is the gap between China and developed countries in the world in 3D printing technology itself? Terry Wohlers: first of all, in China and the United States, many academic and industrial researches in the field of 3D printing technology are carried out in parallel, especially in the field of biomedical treatment. I think the West, generally speaking, mainly the United States, Europe, Central Europe and other European countries adopt this technology for industrial application at a relatively fast speed. So from this perspective, the difference between the two countries lies mainly in understanding what is possible. But in production, I think the key is where this technology will be applied. If you want to apply this technology to mass production, then you will definitely fail, because in the foreseeable future, there will be very few 3D printing products in this field, so I think this is a problem that should be faced squarely in the production of 3D printers. There is also the question of cost. When using 3D printing materials and machines, we need to make a balanced analysis, and we must look at its cost performance, and analyze the specific situation to see if this technology is suitable for this field. The United States and Europe have done a lot of work in this regard. They are trying to understand where 3D printing technology is suitable, what are the shortcomings of this technology and the need to use this downstream operation to ensure quality requirements. So, these things are not simple. It's easy to simply print out a product, but in fact, it takes a lot of thought and effort to make it into a high-quality part, so I think this is the understanding difference between the West and China. Why is there a gap between China and developed countries in the development of 3D printing industry? Luo Jun: I think there are both our own reasons and external reasons. My own reasons are two aspects. On the one hand, 3D printing technology is not a highly replaceable technology and cannot replace traditional manufacturing. On the other hand, it is our own reasons. We are now engaged in 3D printing technology, basically experts, university professors, and experts in scientific research units. The lack of experts' ability to control the market leads to the development of 3D printing industry is always not so smooth. Not only experts, scientists, but also entrepreneurs, there are few successful people in the world. So I think promoting market applications is our shortcoming. As a new industry in China, will 3D printing be a bubble? Wu Chengxuan: I don't think the 3D printing industry will become a bubble for several reasons. First, its investment amount is not as large as that of photovoltaic and high-tech industries. The second reason is mainly based on the fact of the final application. On the one hand, many applications of 3D printing are very mature, but they have not been used in China. Once they are used, there will be a basic demand. And this demand is constantly growing. As long as there is terminal application and demand, this demand will keep growing, which will support the development of this industry. So I think it may be a media bubble, but if we return to the actual development level of the industrial chain, the 3D printing industry will achieve stable development. Zhou Gongyao, a professor at drexel University, USA: This question should be viewed from two aspects. On the one hand, it is the possibility that this industry will become a bubble. According to my analysis, after several economic crises and bubble economies, both the government and the people have become more and more capable of judging one thing. Just like at this 3d printing conference, we not only saw its bright future, but also realized that it still faces many challenges. It can't replace the traditional manufacturing method, but it is just a supplement to the tradition. Second, in the market economy, although the government will also participate, the government's participation should be subordinated to capital to ensure the steady progress of the market. I'm not worried about that. Now the media want to make it a momentum, and I think we should normally cooperate with this trend. With this momentum, both the government and the news media will push up and promote the popularization of 3D printing technology from the field of education. How to promote the benign development of 3D printing industry? Zhang Meiying, Vice Chairman of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: First, the 3D printing industry should strengthen resource integration and cluster development. Since its birth more than 30 years ago, 3D printing technology has gone through a very difficult and tortuous road, and it has not been widely used, both for the industry itself and for external reasons. The main reason is that 3D printing technology is not a highly replaceable technology, and the external reason is that users and enterprises are still in a wait-and-see state and lack sufficient understanding of 3D printing technology. Judging from the current situation of international and domestic 3D printing industry, it is a common phenomenon to be small and scattered. There are only twenty or thirty scientific research units and enterprises engaged in 3D printing technology in China. In 20 12, the global output value of 3D printing technology industry was less than 3 billion dollars, from which it is not difficult to see that the scale of 3D printing technology in the whole manufacturing industry is still very small. Recently, NASA explored 3D printed food to cook for astronauts, because going to Mars must prepare enough food for astronauts' missions that last for several years. In recent years, governments around the world have also increased their support for 3D printing technology, which has attracted wide attention from all countries in the world. In this year's government work report, some local governments proposed to plan the 3D printing technology industry, as if 3D printing would blossom everywhere in China overnight. But where is the market? Where are the users? We don't know yet. For the cultivation of a new technology, only enthusiasm is not enough. We should rationally and objectively plan the layout, avoid rushing headlong into it at the early stage of development, form vicious competition, and prevent 3D printing technology from repeating the mistakes of photovoltaic industry. Second, the development of 3D printing technology should be combined with traditional industries. At present, the biggest problem of 3D printing technology is market application. Only when 3D printing technology is widely used in the process of industrialization can it be further matured and improved. China's traditional industries are very strong, such as steel industry, which ranks first in the world, but the problems of overcapacity and lack of high-end varieties coexist. The biggest advantage of 3D printing technology is that it can meet individual needs and high-end product development, which is conducive to abandoning the traditional industrial model of winning by quantity, leading to high consumption of raw materials and energy and worsening environmental pollution. 3D printing has a wide application prospect in cultural creativity, biomedicine, industry and other fields. At present, on the one hand, our 3D printing industry should actively integrate with traditional industries, develop technologies and products suitable for traditional industries, and help traditional industries improve their production processes. On the other hand, it is necessary to increase publicity, education and popularization of science and technology, so that all sectors of society can have a clearer understanding and grasp of 3D printing technology.