Opportunities and challenges for large scale 3D printing of complex parts

Additive manufacturing (AM) allows designers to build 3D parts of almost any geometry and streamline the process of moving from initial design to prototype in a shortened timeframe. However the existing technologies are limited to small size parts due only to high resolution of the generally produced designs. If a very large part with typical layer resolutions of 0.2mm is produced, the time required for making such a part will be prohibitive. In addition, the material costs will excessive and the machine size will need to be gigantic. In large scale printing the material and the high costs restrict testing on the actual structures and lends itself to the use of numerical or analytical studies of the structures before actual printing. In this paper we analyse the current state of the 3D printing within the boundaries of large scale printing and present a possible solution with numerical simulations.