3D printing will become the main driver of the Internet of Things

A large part of the future growth of the Internet of Things market will benefit from the development of 3D Printing. Whether it is the production of smart home devices, the prototyping of new devices, or the micro-manufacturing of smart sensors, 3D printing is an area where 3D printing can give play to its strengths.

The smart manufacturing industry will see substantial growth in the next few years. Yahoo Finance estimates that the market value of smart manufacturing will grow from US$214.7 billion in 2020 to US$384.8 billion in 5 years, and a large part of the growth momentum will come from 3D printing.

development of. Although smart home devices are not the most profitable IoT products, they are nothing more than the most direct impact on consumers’ lives. To deepen the application of smart devices in home life requires innovative and sustainable design capabilities, and this is where the value of 3D printing lies. At present, 3D printing has been applied to devices such as smart audio enclosures and smart thermostats. Although 3D printing cannot fully replace traditional production methods, its importance will increase day by day. In addition, 3D printing also has a lot of room for development in the production of product prototypes.

Before the product enters the mass production stage, manufacturers can use 3D printing to try various new designs. After introducing fused deposition modeling technology (FDM), multi-jet melting and other technologies, it only takes about 1 day to complete the customized 3D design, which can be said to be very convenient. Given that there will be a large number of new products coming out of the Internet of Things in the next few years, 3D printing is bound to become an important means of modeling and prototyping. The vast majority of IoT applications in the future are inseparable from wireless sensing technology. With the continuous development of IoT applications such as smart cities and connected medical facilities, the role of wireless sensors will become more and more important. Many of these wireless sensors require fine design, and 3D printing is the best option at this time. From the prototype to the actual production stage, 3D printing can provide accurate and repeatable designs.