3D printing pwc

PwC launches program to train employees in 3D printing, blockchain and more

0Shares

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a multinational consultancy firm based in London, has launched a two-year Digital Accelerator program to boost the skills of its employees. The program replaces 1,000 participants’ standard workload with “digital-heavy” client work, projects, and weekly classes focusing on subject matter such as cleansing data, blockchain – a digital ledger of transactional data, and 3D printing.

“My job is to future-proof our workforce,” explained Sarah McEneaney, Digital Talent Leader at PwC. “It just seems table stakes at this point that people should have more technology skills. It’s needed for us to remain competitive and to be responsive for what our clients are also going through.”

3D printing at the PwC facility. Photo via PwC.

Digitizing the workload

PwC has recognized and evaluated the growing use of additive manufacturing technologies, through its previous studies “Disruptive Manufacturing Innovations Survey” and the “3D Printing comes of age in US industrial manufacturing. ” Adapting towards these new technologies, in 2014, PwC began integrating digital services with its clients. “Our clients are looking at how they can transform, stay relevant and frankly stay in business and attract employees,” added McEneaney.

In March of this year, PwC opened up applications for all 46,000 of its nationwide employees for participation in the program, which received 3,500 candidates. PwC then selected 1,000 employees for the program. These employees are required to spend upwards of 10 hours a week in Digital Accelerator classes and work on digital-intensive projects involving marketing and sales clients of PwC.

PwC’s Blueprint for becoming a Digital Champion. Image via PwC

The Digital Accelerator program curriculum

The Digital Accelerator program curriculum comprises three main focus areas. The first includes data and analytics, which will conduct classes on collecting and cleansing data and blockchain. The second area focuses on automation, with classes on cybersecurity, additive manufacturing, drones and Augmented Reality (AR). The third is aimed towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Employees are also required to take coding, user experience and design thinking classes which features content from these focus areas.

The majority of classes will be taught virtually in a group environment. According to McEneaney, digital skills training for PwC employees is one of the largest single investment areas for the firm this year.

Other initiatives investing the digital up-skilling of employees include the MTC’s Additive Manufacturing Competency Frameworks and courses from UK firm Added Scientific.

For more of the latest research related to 3D printing sign up to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter, Also, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

On the lookout for new talent or seeking a career change? Search and post 3D Printing Jobs for opportunities and new talent across engineering, marketing, sales and more.

Featured image shows a depiction of new digital technology integration. Image via PwC.

Tags Digital Accelerator program PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC Sarah McEneaney

Tia Vialva

Tia holds a BA in journalism, and has a background in writing news and features and is a senior journalist at 3D printing industry.

PwC report documents the explosive adoption of 3D printing in manufacturing

Manufacturers are rapidly adopting 3D printing as a valid production technology. This is documented in a new, comprehensive PwC-report about the trends and future in 3D printing.

3D printing is no longer a geeky technology that only used by a few advanced enterprises. The consulting firm PwC documents in a new report from April 2016 that the use of 3D printing by manufacturing companies is rapidly increasingly and it is these companies that fuels the development of 3D printing.

Industrial 3D printers are increasingly being rolled out on production lines on the factory floor rather than occasional manufacturing of single parts. Manufacturing companies today use the technology to manufacture all kinds of products from shoes to complete cars and rocket engines.

The possibilities to print in materials such as metal, ceramics and graphene has made 3D printing a viable competitor to the traditional manufacturing methods. One of the main drivers is the rise in expectations and needs for just-in-time and customized products. PwC points out that 3D printing is becoming increasingly mainstreamed crossing the threshold between “advanced” and “conventional”.

Booming market for 3D printing

PwC predicts that the global market for 3D printing will virtually explode over the next three years. In 2015 the turnover in the worldwide market for 3D printers, accessories and services was around 9.7 billion EUR. In just three years from now, PwC expects that the worldwide revenue in the 3D printing marketplace has almost tripled to around 27.8 billion EUR. More than two-thirds of US companies are using 3D printing in one way or another in their processes, while the percentage of companies that is just experimenting with the technology is decreasing. Most of the companies expect 3D printing to particularly play a role in the production of parts in smaller series, but at the same time 42 percent of the respondents thinks that over the next three to five year 3D printing will primarily be used for high volume production.

3D printing changes the supply chain

The PwC-report points out that two of the areas where 3D printing will affect the traditional manufacturing industry the most is changes in the supply chain and the relationship between businesses and their customers.Furthermore 22 percent of companies states that 3D printing represents a threat to the protection of their corporate intellectual property.

3D printed aftermarket parts

A majority of companies surveyed in PwC’s survey sees production of after-market parts as the area where 3D printing will add the most value over the next three to five years. Also the production of outdated and obsolete parts is seen as a major growth area for applications of the technology.

Seven megatrends in the prevalence of 3D printing in the US

1. 71 percent of manufacturing companies are using 3D printing for prototyping and / or end products.
PwC concludes that still more companies are using the 3D printing for the production of prototypes and final products. Still fewer companies are still only experimenting with their possible future use af the technology.

2. Manufacturing companies expect the use of 3D printing in high-volume production to increase.
42 percent of companies expect that within three to five years will 3D printing be used primarily for high-volume production. However most companies expect that low-volume production of specialized products will remain the largest application.

3. Most companies believe that 3D printing will mainly be used for the production of spare parts and accessories.
Over the next three to five years 53 percent of the companies expects after-market parts to be the largest production application for 3D printed parts.

4. 3D printing will largely be used to manufacture older and obsolete items.
Two-thirds of the companies see the production of older, discontinued items as a natural area for the use of 3D printing.

5. Most companies expect that a majority of all US manufacturers will use 3D printing.
56 percent of the companies believe that within three to five years more than half of their competitors will use 3D printing.

6. Cost and quality problems are the biggest barriers.
The main obstacles to the spread of 3D printing are seen as being cost, lack of qualified staff and uncertainty about the final product quality.

7. 3D printing has significant effects on the supply chain and threaten the intellectual properties.
Changes in the Supply chain and the threat to the protection of intellectual property rights is considered by the majority of businesses as the biggest challenges facing the adoption of 3D printing in the traditional manufacturing industry.

(Source: PWC report. 3D Printing comes of age in US industrial manufacturing

Get in touch to find out more about 3D printing

Chemson Pacific prepares 3DVinyl, the first PVC-based 3D printing filament

News

While most of the materials used in 3D printing come from a range of industrial polymers that already exist, one popular thermoplastic has yet to find acceptance in additive manufacturing. His name is polyvinyl chloride (PVC or PVC), and in everyday life he is familiar from plastic pipes, leather substitutes, protective films on washable wallpaper and stretch ceilings, and from gramophone records. Polyvinyl chloride has a lot of attractive properties: it is durable, cheap, resistant to the external environment and even fire. As a result, PVC ranks third among thermoplastics in terms of industrial use. Why hasn't PVC found its place in 3D printing?

It's all about toxicity. While this plastic is harmless when stable, when burned, it releases a bunch of toxic and carcinogenic organochlorine compounds, including phosgene (an asphyxiant gas used as a chemical weapon in World War I) and dioxins (which disrupt all kinds of metabolic processes), which complicates recycling. In addition, lead (as a stabilizer) and phthalates (as plasticizers) are often added to industrial PVC. The latter accumulate in the finished product and for some time are released in gaseous form. However, toxic materials in the composition of thermoplastics are not new to printers, because the “C” in “ABS” means styrene, a poison that affects the nervous system. The same applies to polystyrene (HIPS). Polycarbonate, on the other hand, can become a source of carcinogenic bisphenol A: this substance is used as a hardener, and in finished products it can be present in relatively small residual volumes, released when heated. That is why it is not recommended to use polycarbonate for the manufacture of containers for hot food or drinks.

Although the concentrations of harmful substances in the air during 3D printing are in most cases quite small, many of them have a cumulative effect, accumulating in the body, and therefore good ventilation should not be neglected. As a last resort, one should not forget about such relatively safe options as polylactide or polycaprolactone, although their physical and mechanical characteristics in many respects leave much to be desired.

Now Australian company Chemson Pacific claims they have created a safer version of PVC for 3D printing, dubbed "3DVinyl". The development of the material was carried out over two years with the participation of experts from DuPont, PMMCO and AIO Robotics. According to the creators, the finished product has taken over the resistance to chemical attack and the high ignition temperature of industrial counterparts. UV resistance is also indicated as an advantage, which is a bit strange, since photodegradation has always been considered one of the main disadvantages of PVC. However, in the industry, this problem is coped with by light-absorbing dyes: apparently, this moment was also taken into account by the developers from Chemson Pacific. In addition, the company claims a relatively environmentally friendly manufacturing process using natural gas instead of crude oil, and the finished material is strong, has good fluidity during extrusion and low shrinkage.

Polyvinyl chloride commercialization as a filament will begin in Australia, where the company is entering into alliances with local manufacturers Welvic and CSIRO for the Australian, New Zealand and Asian markets. The new material is set to premiere on May 19 at the Australian Vinyl Industry Conference. In Europe and the US, the company will be represented by the American filament manufacturer Functionalize, known for its conductive composites. Prototypes have already been tested on AIO Robotics' Zeus 3D printers.

Regarding the performance of the new filament, Functionalize CEO Michael Tutongi was quick to say, “3DVinyl does not contain lead or phthalates. It is a plastic similar to that used in blood transfusion bags. At the same time, Chemson added plasticizers and stabilizers to turn PVC into a 3D-printable thermoplastic, while eliminating the formation of organochlorines. The result is a material that does not emit unpleasant odors and does not require high extrusion temperature or platform heating, like ABS. The material looks and prints great, and the stabilization of the chemical composition is based on new methods developed at Clemson. We are currently working on creating a finished commercial product.” We only note that over the past ten years, several large American medical institutions have decided to abandon the use of PVC containers.

Delivery dates and retail prices for 3DVinyl PVC filament have not yet been announced.

Follow author

Don't want

What you need to know about 3D printing

China's dominance of the world's manufacturing industries dates back to the late 1980s when Western companies found that any import or shipping costs were offset by startlingly lower labor costs and government regulations, but it wasn't until the turn of the century that they really came into their own. . For decades, China has dominated industries as diverse as textiles, personal electronics, toys, iron and metal manufacturing, and even aircraft and automobiles. They finally displaced the United States from the lead in manufacturing a few years ago and have continued to be at the top ever since.

While Asia as a whole has been slow to embrace 3D printing technology, it didn't take long for China to catch up as it is the world's top seller of 3D printers this year. Since 2011, the Chinese 3D printing market has doubled every year and is expected to reach $1.5 billion in 2016. Their growth rate is outpacing the rest of the world and is likely to surpass the United States as the world's largest 3D printing market by 2018 if this growth continues. A 3D printer can produce one part at a time with an accuracy of 0.1mm or less. Desktop printers are already available on the market and allow you to produce small products in almost any shape. The Chinese 3D market is developing at a breakneck pace, which means that the production of PVC toys is also being created faster, more beautiful, better quality, and the price is able to satisfy any client.

In this article, we want to highlight for you in detail what 3D toy printing is, what are its main advantages and types, and how to use them.

The 3D Printer is a manufacturing tool used to create 3D objects (artifacts) and in our case computer generated toys. 3D printers come in a wide range of shapes, sizes, and types, but at their core, they are all computer-controlled additive manufacturing machines. Just as paper printers apply ink in a single layer to create an image, 3D printers apply material layer by layer to create a 3D object.

Key benefits

3D printers can produce custom parts relatively quickly and cheaply, making 3D printers one of the best tools for rapid prototyping.

3D printing allows designers of toy manufacturers to immediately move from idea to reality, with the help of 3D printing they can quickly change designs and can easily create complex geometric shapes of a toy. In short, at the touch of a button, manufacturers can create whatever the customer likes.

With a 3D printer, a part can be designed and manufactured at low cost, and then the design can be modified, printed, and tested multiple times in rapid succession before the part goes into mass production.

Just by pressing a button, whatever you create will be created. Other production methods such as drilling machine, lathe or milling machine should take longer, and the shapes may be slightly different from your desires. Because of the way the parts are created, 3D printers can produce many complex geometries, including natural shapes such as prosthetic limbs or animal models, or more complex shapes such as polyhedra or replicas of scale buildings. 3D printers open up a lot of opportunities for manufacturers simply because they allow people to create things they couldn't before.

A 3D design can be easily modified on a computer and then reprinted. This means that files can be customized for specific people or things and easily printed without changing device settings. The ability to create personalized content is appreciated by both small businesses and large manufacturers as it allows them to create designs. The design can be printed and modified according to the needs of the recipient.

How to work with a 3D printer?

To more specifically understand how 3D printers work and how to design them, you need to understand the different types of 3D printers on the market. Although materials and methods for creating parts vary greatly, all 3D printers create parts by adding material layer by layer, fusing each layer together to create a solid object.

There are several different types of 3D printing processes: some are more suitable for large scale production, others allow multiple materials or colors to be used during printing, and some types of printers can even be built fairly easily due to the way they work.

1 Type: Fused Deposition Modeling ( FDM ). Probably one of the most common types of 3D printing and the easiest to understand. In this type of 3D printing, a material, usually ABS or PLA plastic, is melted by the printer head and extruded onto the base of the printer, similar to how ink is applied to a page on a paper printer. The printer's extruder head lays down material layer by layer to build a 3D model, and each layer fuses with the previous one as it cools.

FDM printers are very common desktop printers because they are inexpensive and easy to build. Their accuracy depends on the quality of the motors that control the position of the extruder head relative to the assembly platform, as well as the thinness of the extruder head when extruding the material. As the material is built up layer by layer, the printed parts tend to be weak along their horizontal cross sections. In addition, any protrusions of 3D printed parts on FDM printers require a support material to hold the protrusion. Multi-head FDM printers can print on soluble media that dissolves when immersed in certain chemicals, while single-extruder printers print on less dense material that can break off after printing is complete. Multiple extruder heads also allow FDM printers to print in different colors or materials, expanding their capabilities.

Type 2: Stereolithography( SLA ) is the oldest 3D printing method that uses a laser to cure a liquid resin with UV light. While FDM printers draw out layers of filament to form a 3D model, an SLA printer's laser beam draws out a section of the part to solidify liquid resin layer by layer, creating a 3D part. While most other 3D printers print from the bottom of the part and work their way up, SLA printers can print from top to bottom. The laser and resin bath is at the base of the printer, and the part is attached to the lower build platform and rises up as it prints.

SLA printers can be very fast and accurate due to their nature. However, the resin itself is expensive, and because it is photocurable, it must be stored in special containers. Most resins are usually very brittle after curing and won't withstand much force, so SLA printing is usually useful when it comes to prototyping but not manufacturing. Like FDM printers, SLA printers require support structures for printed parts, but their materials are limited because they can only print on cured resin and cannot print on multiple media types at once. However, the accuracy of SLA printers allows them to print very complex and fine structures.

Type 3: Selective ( SLS ) Laser Sintering is very similar to stereolithography in that a laser is used to solidify the material and form a solid shape. The biggest difference between the two technologies is that SLA printing uses liquid resin, while laser sintering cures the powder material. Layers of powder are laid down on a print bed and the particles of each layer are laser cured. Selective laser sintering has the advantage that it can work with a wide range of materials, including plastics, glass, and some metals.

No support material is required to print parts on an SLS machine because the parts are under tension so they can be used to create more complex and precise parts than most other printers. However, they are usually only found in industry, as they require high power lasers and can be very expensive.

3 D -Design

3D printers allow designers to jump straight from conceptual ideas and designs to physical models. To do this, the toy must be designed on a computer using some kind of 3D design software. Once a part is designed, it can be imported into the software specific to the 3D printer being used, which will cut the part and send the printer a list of the paths and directions used to create the part.