3D Printing in Egypt
Introduction
3D Printing is globally recognized as the fourth industrial revolution. Having a direct effect on manufacturing process and supply chain, industrial countries are continuously encouraging the use of 3D printing throughout manufacturing processes.
Our beloved country is not an industrial country. However, Egyptian 3D Printing community has grown scientifically in the past 5 years.
3D Printing started to surface in the Egypt. With a relatively very expensive equipment and a very limited know how by serving Jewelers and helping them produce a higher detailed model in a faster and more accurate way. SLA was the perfect solution for them.
Not long after that and with the flourish of the real estate market, the need for Architectural Maquettes of small scale for residential compounds or a coastal retreat starting to increase.
Beginning
Small Scale Architectural Maquette
Using SLS 3D Printing all the small models of an Architectural Maquettes could be done in just hours.
FDM was the cheapest (Still is) 3D Printing technology in Egypt which made it available for exploring for common individuals as a hobby or a small business.
Although, Egyptian craftsmen are among the best in the world, a need for producing small detailed and consistent models of buildings or villas in a short period of time forced the hand of manufacturers to look for another way to produce such highly detailed models.
With the evolution of digital fabrication in Egypt, and being open source, FDM 3D Printing is taking a major part of this evolution.
What started as a famous graduation project for engineering student, is now a seed for a lot of small businesses and startups offering mainly 3D printing services and manufacturing of low budget 3D printers for the Egyptian market.
Although there are a lot of 3D Printing technologies around the world, the technologies available in Egypt are somehow financially limited to mainly FDM, SLA, and SLS (Common 3D Printing technologies available for public).
3D Printing in Egypt is now offered using a wide range of materials starting from as low as 2 EGP/gr (for FDM) using low budget or European made 3D Printer.
Present
Powder based technologies produce solid parts using metal or plastic powders. A thermal source is used to fuse the powder particles one layer at a time.
After fusion of each layer, the platform moves down and a mechanism is used to lay a thin layer of powder on top of the parts and then the process is repeated to fuse another layer resulting in the final solid part submerged in unfused powder.
Powder based technologies allow us to design complex geometry since the product does not need support
Both Plastic and metal parts produced with powder-based technologies have high mechanical properties which allow them to be manufactured as final products.
The limitation of these technologies’ centers around the surface roughness, internal porosity of the solid model and the cost of such technologies is relatively high.
The main difference in powder-based technologies is the heat source and material.
Which printer is right for you?
