Authors: Evgenia Fronimaki, Maria Mavri

Title: 3D printing technology and Industry 4.0

Abstract

We live in a World 4.0 made of complex systems and infrastructures that are becoming more and more interdependent parts of systems. The 4^th industrial revolution interconnects humans and machines with intelligent technologies, transcending automation, standardization and reducing production costs, the hallmarks of the 3^rd industrial revolution. The Industrial Revolution 4.0 is essentially the digital and industrial transformation of industrial markets coupled with the privileged use and communication of today's intelligent machines and systems that will be implemented in the near future.

A prerequisite for the successful transition of production to the era of the 4^th industrial revolution is the incorporation of new technologies, a culture of constant change in business and the continuous upgrading of workers' skills. Industry 4.0 or smart manufacturing uses digitalization to change manufacturing methods. The 4^th industrial revolution changes the way we work and produce and brings measurable benefits to the industry: less spending on quality checks; less time from design to production; less machinery maintenance costs; improving production quality; improvement in the availability of raw materials; increased accuracy in sorting products for packaging; fewer stocks; additional machine production time; increasing the capacity of the transport network and less shipping cost.

The 4^th Industrial Revolution, featuring emerging technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, blockchain, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, Internet of Things, 3D printing and self-driving vehicles, will reach its first peak in 2025, when all of us have Internet access easily. The industrial revolution is not only about the production process but also about the supply chain, energy, transport, industrial resources and even more the society by creating “smart” cities.

Adopting new digitized production, service and interaction models that focus on personalization reduces inefficiencies in the production process, costs to meet personalization needs, costs of the supply chain and leads to new targets where Industrial Revolution 4.0 can satisfy increasingly demanding customers who want efficiency, efficiency coupled with speed while looking forward to innovative value-added services.

By adopting new production models such as 3D printing, the need to produce customized products is met, while at the same time the costs for producing these products are largely manageable. 3D printing has been recognized as a disruptive technology for future advanced manufacturing systems. With a great potential to change everything from our daily lives to the global economy, significant advances in 3D printing technology have been made with respect to materials, printers, and processes. The main objective of this review is (a) to achieve knowledge on implication of 3D printing on Industry 4.0 and (b) to explore the impacts of 3D printing in transformation of business models and processes.