Dr. Zong Guisheng was invited to talk about "3D Printing Technology and Materials" at PetroChina Institute of Petrochemical Research.

　　On August 24th, Beijing, the autumn breeze was refreshing. The multimedia conference room of Petrochemical Research Institute located in PetroChina's innovation base had a warm atmosphere, where top domestic experts in refining and chemical technology gathered. Dr. Zong Guisheng, Chairman of Beijing SANDI Printing Technology Co., Ltd, Chairman of Shenzhen Seven Technology Co., Ltd, and Director of 3D Printing Special Committee of China Powder Metallurgy Technology Innovation Strategy Alliance, was invited to give a special report on "3D Printing Technology and Materials". Mr. Hu Jie, Vice President of Petrochemical Research Institute, Mr. Li Bohong, Deputy Director of Scientific Research Management Department, Mr. Huang Qiang, Director of Synthetic Resin Processing and Application Laboratory, Mr. Gao Fei, Director of Engineering Scale-Up and Process Laboratory, and Mr. Li Jingshan, Director of Party Affairs Office and Hospital Affairs Office, etc., attended the presentation, which was presided over by Dr. Xinshexuan, Deputy Chief Engineer of the Research Institute and Director of Key Laboratory of Synthetic Resin. Meanwhile, researchers from PetroChina Daqing Chemical Research Center and Lanzhou Chemical Research Center also participated in the communication and interaction of the presentation through video outside the site. 

　　In the report, Dr. Zong Guisheng first analyzed the importance of 3D printing technology from the height of the national manufacturing strategy. He pointed out that in today's escalating global manufacturing challenges, manufacturing is changing faster than ever. In order to be undefeated in the competition, we need to improve efficiency, shorten the time to market, and enhance flexibility, and these needs have driven the development of smart manufacturing. 3D printing, as one of the core technologies of smart manufacturing, has the great potential to change the entire production industry, and is expected to become a key part of China's high-end manufacturing industry, and to promote the upgrading of China's manufacturing industry. At the same time, the global manufacturing countries have introduced their own competitive strategy: the U.S. Obama administration will be 3D printing as a stimulus to the manufacturing industry back to accelerate U.S. economic growth as an important "weapon"; Germany's "Industry 4.0" strategy to support the industrial sector. Germany's "Industry 4.0" strategy supports the research and development and innovation of a new generation of revolutionary technologies in the industrial field; domestically, the "National Additive Manufacturing Industry Development Promotion Plan (2015-2016)" puts forward the initial establishment of a more complete additive manufacturing industry system by 2016, the industry's sales revenue to achieve an average annual growth rate of 30% or more, the aerospace and other direct manufacturing areas to reach the international advanced level and other goals; the "Made in China 2025" plan also includes the following Made in China 2025" plan also made clear the realization of long-term constraints on the development of manufacturing key common technology breakthroughs, to enhance the overall competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry tasks and goals.

　　For the current situation of the 3D printing industry and the development prospects of the Chinese market, Dr. Zong Guisheng pointed out that the current 3D printing industry is growing at an average annual rate of about 30%, desktop 3D printers and the civilian market is growing rapidly, and the growth of services exceeds the growth of equipment. The global market size is expected to exceed $20 billion by 2020. 2013, China's 3D printing market size of 2 billion yuan, and the market potential is huge, it is expected that only sports, recreational products, furniture and other 3D printing direct manufacturing industry annual output value of up to one trillion dollars, the global industry scale will reach one trillion dollars.

　　After that, Dr. Zong Guisheng elaborated on the technical characteristics and application advantages of 3D printing from the perspectives of 3D printing equipment and process respectively. He said that 3D printing technology creates a new ability to produce items of various shapes and sizes, enabling engineers to design more complex products that could not be realized before. 3D printing is widely used in aerospace, automotive manufacturing, casting, medical, due to its advantages of manufacturing complex parts, product diversification without increasing costs, assembly-free, cloud manufacturing, zero-skill manufacturing, portable manufacturing, net molding, Civil and other fields of rapid prototyping, rapid manufacturing. In the future, if the use of 3D printing thinking to design and manufacture products, will bring a new era of design and manufacturing.

　　The National Additive Manufacturing Industry Development Advancement Plan (2015-2016), in particular, puts forward that efforts should be made to break through the special materials for additive manufacturing, and by 2016, the independent production of special materials will be basically realized to meet the needs of industrial development and application. The material and application of 3D printing is also a topic of particular concern to the experts here. In this regard, Dr. Zong Guisheng introduced that the polymer materials used in 3D printing mainly include thermoplastics, photosensitive resins, rubber materials, composite materials, etc., while biomaterials, cellular materials, DNA framework materials, stem cell materials and other materials with great future prospects are also in the research and development stage. Plastic is the most commonly used printing material in the field of 3D printing, and its common types are: ABS plastic, PLA (polylactic acid), nylon, PC, glass-filled polyamine, and through the mixing of different ratios of materials, nearly 120 kinds of soft and hard different new materials can be produced. From the current application of China's 3D printing market, ordinary materials occupy half of the world, domestic self-developed mid-range material products accounted for about 40%, foreign high-quality imported consumables accounted for 10%.

　　Dr. Zong Guisheng said that the 3D printing process parameter package of materials is an important value-added factor for printing materials. Talking about the application of materials in 3D printing, Dr. Zong put forward requirements and prospects for synthetic polymer materials and new application areas through the introduction and analysis of the properties and applications of several typical common materials for 3D printing.

　　Finally, for the current development of the domestic 3D printing industry is faced with technology, products, R & D, applications, standards and other challenges, Dr. Zong Guisheng suggests that through enterprise-led, talent gathering, government support and a high degree of marketization to deal with. Government departments and industry enterprises should change their thinking, from the previous respective, fragmented R & D, sales of lone combat, slow natural growth of the development model, and gradually transformed into a platform for the operation of the overall planning, R & D, project R & D, synergistic, mergers and acquisitions of the growth, and through the industry associations to build a professional platform, technical exchanges, participation in the development of industry standards, and ultimately through the integration of resources to achieve a win-win cooperation.

[About China Petroleum and Chemical Research Institute]
　　Petrochemical Research Institute (PRI) is a research institute directly under PetroChina Company Limited, which consists of 9 research institutes and exercises operational leadership over 4 chemical research centers in Lanzhou, Daqing, Jilin and Liaoyang, and centrally undertakes the tasks of PetroChina's R&D in refining and chemical technology. Petrochemical Research Institute is the decision support and production technology service center for PetroChina's refining business, high-tech R&D center and high-level refining science and technology talent training center, and its development goal is to be a "first-class, internationally renowned" refining technology research institute, providing technical support for the development of PetroChina's refining business. Its main functions are: tracking the international refining and chemical technology development trend, providing strategic decision-making support for the company's downstream business development; based on the company's development planning and production needs, proposing and undertaking major refining and chemical technology research, basic research, applied research, and advanced reserve technology research projects; organizing and carrying out domestic and foreign research and development cooperation in refining and chemical technology, and doing a good job in the digestion, absorption and re-innovation of the key technologies and introduced technologies for the leading products; being responsible for the pilot testing of major technologies, and the development of the refining and chemical technology research and development center. It is also responsible for pilot and industrial tests of major technologies, engineering research of refining and chemical technologies, promotion of scientific research results, technical services and technical training.

[About Beijing SANDI Printing Technology Co.
　　Beijing Three Emperor Printing Technology Company (3DP Technology, Inc.) is a high-tech holding company focusing on the research, development, production, and sales of 3D printing systems (equipment, materials, processes, software) and their applications. Founded by one of the world's first 3D printing doctors, China's first high-tech enterprise focusing on 3D printing, developed China's first industrial 3D printer in 1993, rapid prototyping machine, won the Beijing invention gold medal. The company has independent intellectual property rights, the main products and services: industrial 3D printers, 3D printing materials, and everything printing services. At present, the company has more than 140 high-end equipment users and more than 100 processing service users, the market application is mainly in the aviation, aerospace, automotive, and medical fields. (Text/Jiayu)