3D Printing

3D Printing

3D Printing, also known as additive manufacturing is an art of turning a 3D design on your computer into a solid object. It's a sort of extension of Computer Aided Design, which has so transformed professions such as engineering and architecture.

 

You draw the design on a computer screen, and the data then drives a machine which spreads thin layers of plastic or metal powder on top of each other. Each layer is solidified by a sort of laser welder or sinterer; at the end of the process you blow off the unsitered powder and the object you drew on the screen is transformed into complex, intertwined three dimensional reality.

The inception of 3D printing can be traced back to 1976, when the Inkjet printer was invented. In 1984, adaptations and advancements on the inkjet concept morphed the technology from printing with ink to printing with materials when the founder of 3D printing, Charles Hull invented stereolithography, a printing process that enables a tangible 3D object to be created from digital data. The technology is used to create a 3D model from a picture and allows the user to test design before investigating in a larger manufacturing program.

In spite of the fact that 3D printing was invented in the 1980s (really), only recently has it become accessible for anyone besides huge corporations. Since, it has become available for just about anyone to use, it has exploded in popularity. It seems like prices go down, quality goes up, and more materials are available every day. It's a good time to be a maker and better techniques and materials are turning 3D printing into manufacturing operations so called addictive manufacturers, as opened to the cutting and grinding and sawing that has typified engineering up to now.

In theory, it seriously reduces the need for factories, production lines, warehouses, transport around the world from great production hubs. Many things can be printed up for digital instruction in a neighborhood print shop, and carried home under your arms, rather than shipped in a container of loads around the world. This is a very big step. It individualizes industries which until now have been dominated by mass production. In theory, every single product can be different, made to measure, as operators learn how to make things with mixed materials on larger and larger scales.

As a proof of its versatility, in a few decades, 3D printing has already seen the use in the field of architecture, construction (AEC), industrial design, automotive, aerospace, military, engineering, dental and medical industries, biotech (human tissue replacement), fashion, footwear, jewelry, eyewear, education, geographic information systems, food and many other fields.