Printing toys, printing food, printing cars... With the upgrading of intelligent manufacturing technology, 3D printing is accelerating its integration into our production and life. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, the output of 3D printing equipment in China has maintained a high double-digit growth since the beginning of this year, with a year-on-year increase of 51.6% in the first half of the year.

"Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters recently visited Shaanxi, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other places and found that the application scenarios of 3D printing technology have been continuously expanded and deepened, promoting the high-quality integration of the real economy and the digital economy, and have become an important driving force for the cultivation and growth of China's new quality productivity.

Fashionable toys, food, skull models, etc. can all be printed

On July 15, Zhang Kaixiang, a student in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, received an admission letter from Harbin Institute of Technology. The overall appearance of this notice is a "book", and it contains a "golden" key that is 3D printed and polished with space metal materials.

3D printing adds a sense of technology to the admission letter and is loved by students. This new manufacturing technology, which was first developed in the United States, is also known as additive manufacturing. Its working principle is mainly based on digital model files, using bondable materials such as powdered metal or plastic to construct objects by printing layer by layer.

"If an object is cut into many thin layers, 3D printing is to print these thin layers layer by layer, with the upper layer covering the lower layer and combining it with it until the entire object is printed." Li Gang, a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

In Shaanxi, the reporter walked into Xi'an Kangtuo Medical Technology Co., Ltd., where more than ten 3D printing devices were neatly arranged and operated in an orderly manner on the production line. Through layer-by-layer scanning and cumulative forming, a customized skull model can be completed in less than 5 hours.

"Each device can generate 6 skull models at the same time." Zhao Feng, a research and development engineer of the company, said that each model is tailor-made, can accurately show the user's head structure, and effectively assist medical institutions in diagnosis and treatment.

Today, a variety of trendy toys are popular among many young people, and the traditional labor-intensive industry of toy manufacturing is radiating new business opportunities. In Dongguan, Guangdong, the "Chinese trendy toy capital", 3D printing technology has been widely used in the research and development of trendy toy products.

"In the design stage, 3D printing technology is mainly used to verify the feasibility of appearance, structure and other aspects. For example, the trendy toy IP "Fat Da" launched by the company has been verified by 3D printing technology dozens of times before the most suitable product form for market demand is designed." Liu Xueshen, chairman of Dongguan Shunlin Model Gift Co., Ltd. said.

In Henan, the "pocket version" of "Empress Wen Zhao Worshiping Buddha" virtually restored by Xinyang Museum with 3D printing technology in a 1:3 ratio has attracted many tourists to stop; in Shanghai, the moon cakes made by the No. 1 Food Store with 3D printing technology are loved by many consumers; in Jiangsu, Nanjing's first batch of concrete 3D printed carports were landed in the Jiangbei New District Industrial Technology Research and Innovation Park...

Li Dichen, Secretary-General of the Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) Technology Branch of the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineers and Professor of Xi'an Jiaotong University, said that China's 3D printing has been applied on a large scale in the fields of medical, aerospace, consumer electronics, etc. By the end of 2023, the ownership of domestic 3D printing equipment will account for 11.5% of the global equipment, ranking second in the world; the market share of consumer-grade non-metallic 3D printing equipment ranks first in the world.

Better empowerment of traditional manufacturing

At the Hudong factory of Mondel¨¥z Food (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., tens of thousands of sandwich biscuits are freshly baked every hour and distributed to various places through automatic packaging. Such an efficient production method is inseparable from the help of 3D printing technology.

"After purchasing a 3D printer, the food processing machine accessories that used to cost 60,000 yuan can now be printed out for a few hundred yuan, and the food processing efficiency has been significantly improved." Li Yunlong, manufacturing director of Mondel¨¥z Hudong Factory, said.

The reporter learned in the interview that compared with traditional manufacturing technology, the outstanding advantage of 3D printing is that it does not require templates and can be printed directly, saving material consumption and labor costs. Secondly, 3D printing has the technical advantages of rapid prototyping and the realization of any complex structure manufacturing, which better empowers traditional manufacturing.

In Zhejiang, the reporter saw in the production workshop of Hangzhou Shiyin Technology Co., Ltd. that a food 3D printer can make more than 20 different types of food. "Traditional baked products are all made by hand, but now they can be presented in a digital way." The company's CEO Li Jingyuan said that food 3D printers can print out products of different forms to better meet the market's customized needs.

Industry insiders told reporters that 3D printing technology has opened up new competitive advantages for many high-tech companies, especially specialized "little giant" companies.

"Due to the small size of medical robots, the required battery size is even smaller. Currently, only 3D printing technology can solve the problem of integrated manufacturing and packaging of batteries with a three-dimensional size of less than 4 mm." Ling Qi, chief operating officer of Gaoneng Digital Manufacturing (Xi'an) Technology Co., Ltd., said that with the help of 3D printing technology, the company's "Linglong" series of ultra-micro batteries have been successfully applied to the field of implantable medical robots and are widely welcomed by the market.

From the proposal of building an additive manufacturing industry chain in the "13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of National Strategic Emerging Industries", to the proposal of in-depth implementation of the special project to enhance the core competitiveness and technological transformation of the manufacturing industry in the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the Outline of the 2035 Vision Goals, China regards additive manufacturing (3D printing) as an important area for future planning and development.

At the local level, the reporter found that many places such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Chongqing, and Zhejiang have clearly developed additive manufacturing (3D printing) in policy documents. For example, Guangdong has issued an action plan, which clearly states that by 2025, it will create a strategic emerging industry cluster of laser and additive manufacturing with a revenue of more than 180 billion yuan.

"3D printing has a wide coverage of the manufacturing industry, especially in the fields of new materials, new energy, and high-end equipment. It has great application potential and is an important force in promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing." Li Dichen said.

Some development bottlenecks still need to be broken through

The interviewed experts told reporters that high performance, high efficiency, and low cost are the future development direction of 3D printing technology. However, there is still a gap in the stability and economic applicability of China's 3D printing scale manufacturing, and it is necessary to further improve the technology research and development and industrial support policy system.

From a technical perspective, Li Dichen suggested that the layout of 3D printing full-chain collaborative innovation laboratories, pilot platforms and innovation centers should be accelerated to build a 3D printing ecosystem and standardization system based on independent technology. Strengthen the construction of strategic talent, list 3D printing categories separately in the national talent training plan, and introduce and cultivate 3D printing technology innovation and industry leaders at multiple levels.

Statistical data show that there are nearly 200 3D printing companies above a certain scale in China, but most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises with relatively weak R&D and technological innovation capabilities. "We must strengthen overall planning and policy guidance, strengthen large-scale 3D printing backbone enterprises, support small and medium-sized 3D printing enterprises, accelerate industrial agglomeration, and cultivate industrial clusters." Li Gang said.

The reporter learned in the interview that in recent years, Europe and the United States have used 3D printing to print integral rockets, engines and other iconic products, driving the rapid development of emerging industries. "From China's perspective, we should be guided by new industrialization, accelerate the creation of iconic 3D printing products and typical application scenarios, promote the further application of 3D printing to key industries such as automobiles, electronic information, and engineering machinery, and promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries." Li Dichen suggested.

Many industry insiders said that China has a complete industrial system and rich application scenarios. As relevant policies continue to improve, 3D printing is expected to be applied to most manufacturing fields and better benefit people's production and life.

"It is expected that in the next 3 to 5 years, the scale of China's 3D printing industry will be comparable to that of Europe and the United States as a whole, and the growth rate will be 8 to 10 percentage points higher than the global average." Li Dichen said that in the future, 3D printing will fully support industries such as advanced aircraft, robots, and organ drug screening models, and is expected to generate a trillion yuan market size increase.

(Reporter Wei Yukun, Zhang Bowen, and Wu Tao)

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