GregEnslen.com | Tech Corner, 04/17/13: 3-D Printing.
One fascinating emerging technology is 3-D printing — it’s the creation of physical objects using a desktop machine to “print” the object using a variety of methods.
What is 3-D Printing?
Manufacturers often create prototypes or small models of different parts for testing or before scaling up to production. Often these models and prototypes have to be created somewhere else — CAD (computer aided design) files are created and sent to the manufacturer, who creates the prototype part and ships it back.
Other manufacturers that make small physical products often design the products and then contract out the actual manufacturing to a factory, often located on the other side of the ocean.
And replacement parts for machines can be difficult to find, especially for devices and machines that are no longer in production. How frustrating would it be to have to get rid of a large household machine or a piece of factory equipment, like a dishwasher or a printing press, just because no one makes a particular part or gasket anymore?
It’s Like Magic!
3-D printing is starting to change all of that. Over the past few years, desktop 3-D printing has really started to take off, growing out of a “do it yourself” DIY culture of creating things in workshops or in small studios. Now, with the advent of cheaper 3-D printers, small companies (and large) can “print” parts and create small objects and prototypes on-site in a short time.
Putting the “factory” on the desktop is revolutionizing the creation of small parts and pieces. Prototypes, replacement parts, and small runs of physical objects, just as toys or cell phone cases, can now easily be created with desktop 3-D printers like the Makerbot Replicator.
How Does it Work?
Machines like the Makerbot require a design, usually a CAD file, that describes the exact dimensions of the object. Using a process known as Additive Manufacturing, the printer lays down a thin layer of material, usually melted plastic, then lowers the surface upon which the object is being created and “prints” another layer. Over time, as the plastic cools and hardens, the machine can create an intricate 3-D object.
In most manufacturing processes, they start with a large piece of raw materials and “machine away” the rest of the block to create a small object. This process is inherently more wasteful as the bulk of the raw materials are removed and must be recycled or disposed of. The additive manufacturing method uses exactly the right amount of material to create the plastic toy or replacement gasket.
And the Future..
If you think printing out your next cell phone case is cool, just wait: printers are coming along that use other materials. On the Wikipedia page for 3D printing, there are descriptions of printers that use melted sugars to created intricate, printed candies. Some are comparing the creation and availability of 3-D printing for the masses to the revolutions brought on by the creation of the printing press and computers. In the future, it might be that people will be swapping illegal, “Napster”-style designs for physical objects, printing them out for themselves instead of buying them from manufacturers.
One potentially life-changing application? Printed skin and organs. Work is progressing on “printing out” replacement kidneys that are grown from living tissue. Talk about “replacement parts”! Other scientists are working on a printer that sprays an thin layer of “skin” over wounds and burns to cover the area and keep out infection. As Mr. Spock would say, “Fascinating.”
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