Printing toys, printing food, printing cars... With the upgrading of intelligent manufacturing technology, 3D printing is accelerating its integration into our production and life. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the production of 3D printing equipment in China has maintained double-digit high-speed growth since the beginning of this year, with a year-on-year increase of 51.6% in the first half of the year. The reporter visited Shaanxi, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other places and found that the application scenarios of 3D printing technology are constantly expanding and deepening, promoting the high-quality integration of the real economy and the digital economy, and has become an important driving force for the cultivation and growth of new quality productivity in China. Trendy toys, food, skull models, etc. can all be printed. On July 15th, Zhang Kaixiang, a student from Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang Province, received an admission letter from Harbin Institute of Technology. This notification letter is presented in the shape of a book and contains a "gold" key 3D printed and polished with space metal materials. 3D printing adds a sense of technology to admission letters and is highly favored by students. This new manufacturing technology, also known as additive manufacturing, which first developed in the United States, works mainly based on digital model files, using adhesive materials such as powdered metal or plastic to construct objects through layer by layer printing. If an object is sliced into numerous thin layers, 3D printing is the process of printing these layers layer by layer, with the previous layer covering the next layer and combining them until the entire object is printed into shape Li Gang, a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said. In Shaanxi, the reporter walked into Xi'an Kangtuo Medical Technology Co., Ltd., where more than ten 3D printing devices were neatly arranged and operated in an orderly manner on the production line. Through layer by layer scanning and cumulative shaping, a customized skull model can be produced in less than 5 hours. Each device can generate 6 skull models simultaneously Company R&D engineer Zhao Feng said that each model is tailored to accurately display the user's skull structure, effectively assisting medical institutions in diagnosis and treatment. Nowadays, a variety of trendy toys are highly sought after by many young people, and the traditional labor-intensive industry of toy manufacturing is showing new business opportunities. 3D printing technology has been widely used in the R&D and design of ChaoPlay products in Dongguan, Guangdong, the "ChaoPlay Capital of China". In the design phase, 3D printing technology is mainly used to verify the feasibility of appearance, structure, and other aspects. For example, the trendy IP 'Fat Da' launched by the company underwent dozens of 3D printing technology verifications before designing the most suitable product form for market demand Liu Xueshen, Chairman of Dongguan Shunlin Model Gift Co., Ltd., said. In Henan, the Xinyang Museum used 3D printing technology to virtually restore the "pocket version" of the "Empress Wen Zhao Worship Buddha Picture" in a 1:3 ratio, attracting many tourists to stop and visit; In Shanghai, the mooncakes made by First Food Store using 3D printing technology are loved by many consumers; In Jiangsu, the first batch of concrete 3D printed carports in Nanjing have landed in the Jiangbei New Area Industrial Technology Research and Innovation Park... Li Dichen, Director General of the Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) Technology Branch of the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineering and a professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University, said that 3D printing has been widely applied in medical, aerospace, consumer electronics and other fields in China. By the end of 2023, the number of domestically produced 3D printing equipment accounted for 11.5% of global equipment, ranking second in the world; The market share of consumer grade non-metallic 3D printing equipment ranks first in the world. Better empower traditional manufacturing at the Hudong factory of Yizi Food (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. Every hour, tens of thousands of freshly baked sandwich cookies are automatically packaged and sent to various places. Such an efficient production method cannot be achieved without the assistance of 3D printing technology. After purchasing a 3D printer, food processing machine accessories that used to cost 60000 yuan can now be printed for just a few hundred yuan, significantly improving food processing efficiency Li Yunlong, Manufacturing Director of Yizi Lake East Factory, said. The reporter learned in the interview that compared to traditional manufacturing technology, the prominent advantage of 3D printing is that it does not require templates and can be printed directly, saving material consumption and labor costs. Secondly, 3D printing has the technological advantages of rapid prototyping and the ability to manufacture any complex structure, better empowering traditional manufacturing. In Zhejiang, reporters saw in the production workshop of Hangzhou Shiyin Technology Co., Ltd. that a food 3D printer can produce more than 20 different types of food. Traditional baking products are handmade, but now they can be presented digitally, "said Li Jingyuan, CEO of the company. The food 3D printer can print different forms of products to better meet the customized needs of the market. Industry insiders told reporters that 3D printing technology has opened up new competitive advantages for many high-tech enterprises, especially specialized and innovative "little giants". Due to the small size of medical robots, they require smaller battery volumes. Currently, only 3D printing technology can solve the problem of integrated manufacturing and packaging of batteries with three-dimensional dimensions less than 4 millimeters Ling Qi, Chief Operating Officer of High Energy Numerical Manufacturing (Xi'an) Technology Co., Ltd., said that with the help of 3D printing technology, the company has developed the "Linglong" series of ultra micro batteries, which have been successfully applied in the field of implantable medical robots and are widely welcomed in the market. From the proposal of building an additive manufacturing industry chain in the "13th Five Year Plan" for the development of national strategic emerging industries, to the in-depth implementation of the "14th Five Year Plan" and the 2035 Vision Goal Outline to enhance the core competitiveness of the manufacturing industry and carry out technological transformation projects, China has identified additive manufacturing (3D printing) as an important area for future planning and development. At the local level, reporters have found that many places such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Chongqing, and Zhejiang have explicitly stated the development of additive manufacturing (3D printing) in their policy documents. For example, Guangdong has issued an action plan, which specifies that by 2025, it will build a strategic emerging industry cluster in laser and additive manufacturing with a revenue of over 180 billion yuan. 3D printing has a wide coverage in the manufacturing industry, especially in the fields of new materials, new energy, high-end equipment, etc. It has great potential for application and is an important force in promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing Li Dichen said. Experts interviewed told reporters that some development bottlenecks still need to be overcome, and high performance, high efficiency, and low cost are the future development directions of 3D printing technology. However, there is still a gap in the stability and economic applicability of large-scale 3D printing manufacturing in China, and further improvement is needed in technology research and development and industrial support policy system. From a technical perspective, Li Dichen suggests accelerating the layout of 3D printing full chain collaborative innovation laboratories, pilot platforms, and innovation centers, and building a 3D printing ecosystem and standardization system based on independent technology. Strengthen the construction of strategic talent strength, list the 3D printing category separately in the national talent training plan, and cultivate 3D printing technology innovation and industry leading talents at multiple levels. According to statistical data, there are currently nearly 200 3D printing enterprises above a certain scale in China, but most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises with relatively weak R&D and technological innovation capabilities. We need to strengthen overall planning and policy guidance, strengthen large-scale 3D printing backbone enterprises, support small and medium-sized 3D printing enterprises, accelerate industrial agglomeration, and cultivate industrial clusters, "said Li Gang. The reporter learned during the interview that in recent years, Europe and America have used 3D printing to produce iconic products such as rockets and engines, which has driven the rapid development of emerging industries. From a domestic perspective, we should take the new industrialization as the guide, accelerate the creation of 3D printing iconic products and typical application scenarios, promote the further application of 3D printing in key industries such as automobiles, electronic information, and construction machinery, and promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. "Li Dichen suggested. Several industry insiders have stated that China has a complete industrial system and rich application scenarios. With the continuous improvement of relevant policies, 3D printing is expected to be applied in most manufacturing fields, better benefiting people's production and life. It is expected that in the next 3 to 5 years, the scale of China's 3D printing industry will be comparable to that of Europe and America as a whole, and the growth rate will be 8 to 10 percentage points higher than the global average Li Dichen said that in the future, 3D printing will fully support industries such as advanced aircraft, robots, and organ drug screening models, and is expected to generate a trillion yuan market growth. (New Society)