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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

3D Printing In China

3D Printing Reshaping 'Made in China'

Xinhua | February 27, 2016



The KOCEL group, an iron and steel foundry in northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, has reinvented itself through new technology.
Founded in 1966, the company which was once owned by the state, now uses 3D printing for a cleaner, leaner production process.
Better by design
"3D printing is changing the way foundries operate, revitalizing a process which has basically remained the same in China for 6,000 years," said Meng Qingwen, deputy director of the company's 3D printing center.
Traditionally, molten metal is cast into shapes by pouring it into a mold, usually made of sand, and waiting for it to solidify. In the past, to make a complex shape, technicians would break the design down into simple components, make templates of each part individually and then combine the pieces before going on to make the mold. A 3D printer, on the other hand, can make an integrated sand mold of the most complex of shapes directly.
With the new technology, the accuracy of the casting process has increased from 1 mm to 0.2 mm, and the scrap rate has fallen from around 30 percent to less than 5 percent, Meng said.

Source; https://3dprint.com/143613/china-metal-3d-printing-tech/
"Beijing architecture firm HuaShang Tengda has reached a new milestone in the rise of 3D-printed buildings. The firm printed an entire 4,300-square-foot home in just 45 days, and the villa’s thick concrete walls are sturdy enough to sustain a magnitude eight earthquake." Source: http://www.curbed.com/2016/7/6/12096052/3d-printed-home-china-concrete-architecture

<more at http://m.chinadaily.com.cn/en/2016-02/27/content_23667053.htm; related articles and links: http://www.china.org.cn/business/2016-07/25/content_38951196.htm (Catching up fast in 3D printing. July 25, 2016) and http://3dprintingindustry.com/news/china-gets-medical-3d-printing-center-excellence-87760/ (China gets medical 3D printing center of excellence. July 22, 2016)>

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