Japan's 3D printing lags behind Europe and the United States to start a national project to save

Professor Hideki Kyogoku, Director of the Department of Engineering, Kinki University, Japan, at the '3D Printing Forum - Reality of 'Manufacturing Innovation' Changing the World' held in Tokyo on May 12, 2014, with 'Industrial 3D Printer Development National Project' gave a speech on the topic. Professor Kyogoku is the head of the 'New Generation Industrial 3D Printer Technology Development Project' in the 'New Generation 3D Layered Modeling Technology Comprehensive Development Organization' (TRAFAM) established in April. The last chance to eliminate the gap Professor Kyogoku pointed out in his speech that Japanese companies lag behind European and American companies in the 3D printer market, 'especially in the last five years, there has been a clear gap'. Japanese manufacturers began to work on 3D printer research in 2000, but due to the high performance of Japanese machine tools, the research has not made significant progress. Kyogoku stressed that the five-year implementation period of the project he is now in charge of will be Japan's 'last chance' to close the gap with Europe and the United States. A target price was also proposed. The development targets of the project are metal 3D printers for printing three-dimensional objects using metal materials, as well as 3D printers for sand molds used to make casting sand molds. Metal 3D printers envision the use of electron beams or laser beams to sinter and melt metal powders, with the goal of increasing the modeling speed by 10 times and the accuracy of molded products by five times. The maximum shape size target is 1000mm square × 600mm. At present, it is only about 250mm square. In addition to hardware such as metal powder materials suitable for metal 3D printers, the project will also develop control software. The control software includes simulation technology for material cooling and solidification. This technique was developed because the metal powder is melted and then solidified during the molding process, so accurate simulation of this process is necessary to improve accuracy. The project also sets a market price target for the unit. Metal 3D printers cost less than 50 million yen, and 3D printers for sand molds cost less than 20 million yen. At present, in terms of market share of 3D printers in various countries and regions, Japan accounts for less than 10% in terms of amount and shipments. The goal of this project is to increase this proportion to dozens of percentage points and increase Japan’s share in the global market. Manufacturer's presence.