Digital fabrication 3D printing technology, which does away with concepts such as tooling and assembly lines, is out to change designing and fabrication, IIT-Hyderabad Director U.B. Desai said here on Monday.
Sans assembly lines
Speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of the International Symposium on Digital Fabrication organised by IIT-Hyderabad in association with Keio University Japan and Deakin University Australia under the aegis of Jap-an International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Prof. Desai said the technology enables fabrication using a wide variety of materials at home or the workplace without tooling, assembly lines or supply chains.
He described it as a technology that was being used to economically create custom-made and improved products. IIT-H had already introduced digital fabrication as a subject at the under-graduate level, he said. “Maybe soon it will develop as a full-fledged programme,” he added.
User-friendly
Prof. Jun Murai, Dean, Faculty of Environment & Information Studies, Keio University, said the use of digital fabrication had spread over large manufacturing facilities over the last two decades and interdisciplinary collaboration was serving to make the technology inexpensive and user-friendly.