Aug.10, 2013
The consumer electronics giant Panasonic announced on Aug.7th that the company plans to fully utilize 3D printing technology in the development of digital home appliances, in order to improve development efficiency and cut R&D costs.
Panasonic said creating new product prototypes involves resin, metal and other manual processing operations. Digital cameras and high-precision instruments require much more complex and fine accessories than large home appliances, and it takes normally many weeks to created such a prototype. But with 3D printing, design data is sent directly to a 3D printer. The development time can be greatly reduced from several weeks to one day or even less, and costing saving can be around 20%.
Earlier Panasonic unveiled half-inch thick, 3D printed 4K OLED TV at CES in January this year. The company has also used 3D printing in creating prototypes of head-mounted cameras which were released in May.
According to Japanese research firm Seed Planning, Japan's 3D printing market reached to 9.3 billion yen in 2012, and it is expected it will reach to 15.5 billion yen in 2016. Panasonic's intention to use 3D Printing Technology for prototyping is likely to impact other manufacturers.
Posted in 3D Printing Technology
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