3D Printing Industry Job Types

[tc21]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone with experience in the 3D Printing industry could help answer some questions and provide some general guidance.

I am very interested in 3D printing, but know little to nothing about the professional industry. I would really love to work with 3D printers, but I just do not know where to start. I recently graduated with a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering and would like to go back to school to earn my Masters. My questions are:

1. What 3D printing jobs would a chemical engineering degree be considered most beneficial for?

2. What sorts of Masters Degrees do people who work with 3D printers tend to have?

3. What fields of 3D printing are anticipated to experience the most growth in the next 10 to 20 years?

4. What 3D printing companies are considered state-of-the-art, or creative, or all-around interesting places to work?

Any guidance, advice, or support would be very appreciated.

Also, I hope I posted this in the correct sub-forum. Please let me know if I need to move this elsewhere.

Thank you!!

[Frazveragan]

Hi TC21,

I'm new on the forum myself, but work in the 3D industry, so I might be able to help answer a few of the questions you asked. I'm in a company that does work in the applied sector as opposed to development, so some of my thoughts might not be on the mark.
If you want your degree to correlate directly to working in the industry I'd imagine you could find a role in R&D with materials/filament/printer oriented around a certain type of technology. If you're open to trying a number of things my experience so far has been that a lot of people in the industry have very diverse backgrounds generally in industrial work, manufacturing, engineering, or science.
There's really two ways this is playing out. Most of the 3D specific companies are producing equipment and primarily focused on selling equipment and of course developing new technology. If you're more interested in using 3D printing in a particular field this is still kind of emerging. Print shops are cropping up. It's used a lot in labs, with individuals doing prototyping, product design, art, etc. and in general there don't seem to be specific positions for someone only working with 3D Printers.
Again though, I only see a couple sides of it in what I'm doing.

[Bobby Lin]

Hi! 3d Printing industry opens up vast opportunities as its being adapted and applied to various industries. So there's no doubt there's a vast opportunity for you! Now to answer your question:


1. I would say go for bio-printing, prosthetics and R&D. The medical industry are venturing 3d printing to learn more about the chemical compositions such as DNA, tissues, ligaments, etc and they are attempting to print it out. I know it's not really a direct job for chemical engineers but since it deals with Science and Medicine, they are somehow connected so it might be the right one for you.


2. Master degrees, I think the advance manufacturing, R&D and bio-engineering and the like would suffice for this. There's no specific course for 3d printing yet, it's more of a technology application. But you can also learn if you watch some tutorials about 3d printing.


3. 10-20 years from now 3d printing is expected to be applied in various industries like Architecture, Science and Medicine, Biology, Fashion, Jewelry, Industrial Design, Food and so much more.


4. There are various 3d printing companies already existed but I can't say which one is really the best. I guess you need to venture it out and if it fits your preference and requirements.


Hope this helps!

[MechaBits]

Bobby's comments are on the money, and sound like the most compatible route, bio-polymers very interesting if you have the backgound and know what to do, or can easily find additional reading material.

But perhaps another route would be DIY...come up with something of your own, there was a program on the other day about people experimenting with DNA at home people ordering gene sequences from the internet and doing crazy things at home with minimal equipment, or DNA hackerspace's.

So if you can figure out how to make some interesting bio-polymer sludge that you can turn into filament in quantity(or self organizing layer by layer), or one that sets like concrete when exposed to UV or other spectum light/or electical stimulation, or all at the same time?, the big boys will probably welcome you with open ams.

[LambdaFF]

For my industry (aeronautics) : the problem is not so much to manufacture a part in 3D printing (because this part is already more or less existing) but to explain to EASA (and demonstrate) that it will be reliably constant in its properties.

The demonstration part calls for tests and expert mechanical and material analysis. If -say- we wanted to avoid to store perishable seals and instead develop the 3D printing of seals as a new spare part strategy (which will have to happen someday), we need to be able to prove that the storage of the resin doesn't affect it for XX years, that to have this and that spec in a reliable way the printing needs to happen in this or that conditions.... Tests tests developments.

[tc21]

Thank you everyone for your valuable input, definitely helps to put things in perspective.

I have completed coursework on Biomaterials so I somewhat understand the field. However, I was never a fan of, or particularly excelled in basic Biology. Are there any 3D printing applications that are more chemical related and less biological?

For example, I don't think that I would be comfortable working with 3D Printing where my designs would be implemented into the human body. There are just too many working biological parts, and failure of my design could incur a loss of life. I would much rather be designing or printing parts and pieces that interact with a predetermined environment, such as a chemical facility. A really neat application I think would be printing a determined molecule or molecular family from a given stock of chemicals. What degree or degrees would cover these types of things, is it still Biomaterials or would something else be more beneficial?

[tc21]

One other question:

I am becoming increasingly interested in nanomaterials as they apply to 3D printing. Would a Masters Degree in Material Sciences, focusing on nanomaterials, be sufficient to enter into the 3D industry? OR, do I need some type of experience, whether coursework or another degree altogether, that focuses on 3D Printing?

[CarterTG]

In my opinion, stereolithography 3D printing while being around for over 20 years, still has tremendous room for advances -- especially true for someone approaching from a chemical background.

Early on, SLA machines would create resin models used in direct investment casting. The resins would dictate the speed the machines could print at and other factors in how well it'd cast.

Fast forward to present day, and machines like the B9 Creator paired with their B9R-1-Cherry resin would print the same 3D file in half the time with more detail and still remain friendly to direct casting. B9R-2-Black resin would print even faster than Cherry, but doesn't reliably burn-out cleanly for direct casting.

Many of the machines like B9 Creator, Form1, etc rely on resins that have specific characteristics. Reactivity to light for curing. Oxygen used to inhibit curing. Best I can tell, the aftermarket resin companies are mixing up concoctions randomly and just hoping for the best. This results in stuff that reduce the service life of the vats of these units.

Someone approaching this leveraging their knowledge of chemistry could develop resins that maximize the desired characteristics (reactivity speed, high detail) while minimizing/eliminating the bad ones (perishability, shelf stability, inhibition control, etc) for the jewelry/dental casting industries.

There's also plenty of room for development of resins that cure into materials with other characteristics... clear materials, rubber/flexible materials, conductive materials, luminescent materials, thermally stable matererials, super-tough durable materials...

An established variety of these resins could be the "killer app" that opens more opportunities for SLA printing to be used in more areas. The aftermarket companies will either have to buy these optimized mixes or fold up when the users flock to you.

In my view, it doesn't take much to knock out the aftermarket pretenders. A variety of resins that expands the capabilities of the machines they're used in while preserving/enhancing/maintaining the serviceability would be a huge step over what exists now. The next factor could be one based on cost. On the commercial side, a HALF-KILO of some resins cost upwards of $400usd. There's lots of $$$$ to be made in this little-charted arena.