Chapter 14 The Technology Behind Future Props 2

3D printing technology has a wide range of applications in modern society, including jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction, automobiles, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, firearms, and It has applications in other fields.

On January 14, 2019, the University of California, San Diego, used rapid 3D printing technology for the first time to create a spinal cord scaffold that mimics the structure of the central nervous system, successfully helping rats restore their motor functions.

[Recommended, Yeguo Reading and Chasing Books is really useful, download it here

Come and try it quickly. 】

3D printing technology has many advantages and can save materials. There is no need to remove leftover materials, which improves material utilization and reduces costs by eliminating the production line; it can achieve high precision and high complexity, and can produce very complex parts that cannot be manufactured using traditional methods; Without the need for traditional tools, fixtures, machine tools or any molds, you can directly generate physical products from any shape of three-dimensional CAD graphics on the computer; you can automatically, quickly, directly and relatively accurately convert the three-dimensional design in the computer into a physical model. It can even directly manufacture parts or molds, thus effectively shortening the product development cycle; it does not require a centralized, fixed manufacturing workshop and has the characteristics of distributed production; it can be formed within a few hours, which allows designers and developers to realize the plan from the floor plan. A leap to the physical; being able to print assembled products, thereby reducing assembly costs and even challenging mass production methods.

But there are limitations.

For example, there are disadvantages of high cost and long working hours: 3D printing is still a relatively expensive technology. Due to the difficulty in developing materials for additive manufacturing and the low usage, 3D printing manufacturing costs are high and the manufacturing efficiency is low.

Secondly, 3D printing does not yet have advantages in large-scale production: since 3D printing technology has the advantages of distributed production, on the contrary, it does not have advantages in large-scale production.

At present, 3D printing technology does not yet have the conditions to replace traditional manufacturing. In terms of large-volume and large-scale manufacturing, efficient and low-cost traditional subtractive manufacturing methods are superior.

It is unlikely to use 3D printing as a production method to replace mass production.

Some complex mixed material products cannot be directly printed and produced by 3D printing technology. Even if this problem is overcome, 3D printing takes too long. For example, it will take at least several months or even longer to completely print a car. , such a cost is difficult for car companies to accept. In terms of cost, it is much higher than the cost spread evenly on each car when mass-producing cars.

Only with "personalized and customized" products will the 3D printing production method become more economical.

In addition, the materials used in 3D printing technology are also limited. At present, printing materials are mainly plastics, resins, plaster, ceramics, sand and metals, etc. The materials that can be used for 3D printing are very limited.

Precision and quality are also issues that cannot be avoided with 3D printing technology.

Since the inherent molding principles and development of 3D printing technology are not yet perfect, the accuracy of printed molded parts (including dimensional accuracy, shape accuracy and surface roughness), physical properties (such as strength, stiffness, fatigue resistance, etc.) and chemical properties, etc. Most of them cannot meet the actual requirements of engineering, cannot be used as functional parts, and can only be used as prototypes, thus their application will be greatly reduced.

Moreover, since 3D printing adopts the additive manufacturing process of "layered manufacturing, layer by layer superposition", no matter how close the connection between the layers is, it cannot be compared with parts cast entirely by traditional molds, and the microscopic properties of the part materials Organization and structure determine the performance of parts.

This is the limitation of 3D printing technology in the modern society where Wu Siyuan lives.

As for the future 3D printing technology on the [Automatic Universal Construction Machine] that Doraemon brought out, the printed products not only have a precision and quality that far exceeds the 3D printing technology in modern society, but are more than sufficient as functional parts, and, The speed is also far superior to modern 3D printing technology.

Modern 3D printing technology takes 20-30 hours, and what is printed is only a very simple house.

Such a house can be printed with future 3D printing technology on an [automatic universal construction machine] in only two or three hours, and it can even be done better.

The 3D printing technology used in Doraemon props is about ten times more efficient than modern 3D printing technology.

Such efficiency, precision, and quality can actually replace many assembly lines in modern society.

Moreover, the 3D printing technology on Doraemon props can print mixed material products. Complex products like cars can also be directly printed, including parts such as engines and air conditioners.

But this is the use of nanotechnology and nanomaterials.

Even Wu Siyuan has not mastered real nanotechnology, let alone modern society.

Wu Siyuan discovered that many of Doraemon's technologies use nanotechnology.

It can be seen that in the future world of the Doraemon universe, nanotechnology has been used on a large scale in society, as common as water and electricity.

[Four-Armed King Kong] told Wu Siyuan that with the technological capabilities of modern society, replicating this technology cannot reach the original level. They cannot meet the standards in many key links and can only settle for the second best.

But even so, it is much more advanced than modern 3D printing technology.

Wu Siyuan has a premonition that 3D printing technology will be useful in modern society in the future.

He put it down for a moment and asked about the solar cells.

Wu Siyuan once obtained advanced solar power generation technology in the world of "The Martian". Its power generation efficiency can reach 32%, which is double the photovoltaic power generation efficiency in the real world. In addition, under sunlight exposure, its efficiency decays at an average rate of 0.3%! The expected effective use time is more than 50 years!

But the solar cell in Doraemon's hands has a power generation efficiency that is even better than the solar power generation technology in "The Martian", reaching 49.2%!

The reason for such high conversion efficiency is the use of new nanostructured materials.

This nanostructured material is more advanced than the composite perovskite material used in the world of The Martian, with higher performance and greater efficiency.

New nanostructured materials could provide better anti-reflective coatings, allowing more sunlight to enter solar cells.

Electrodes made from nanowire meshes can be almost completely transparent.

Nanopillars made of insulating materials rather than semiconductors could improve solar cell performance in a number of ways.

The nanopillars do not absorb light and have a different refractive index than the surrounding material, so certain wavelengths of light are reflected off the array. These nanopillars form a separate layer between perovskite and silicon.