Larger than a Paper Jam: The Future of 3D Printing

During this last decade a machine called a 3D printer has taken off and is believed to soon be in the homes of almost every family in the United States. It’s basically a computer printer that creates a 3-dimentional object by stacking material layer by layer on top of each other. You can design these objects through modeling software or

3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital design. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process the desired object is created by laying down successive layers of material (usually molten alloy or plastics) until the entire object is formed. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object.

As 3D printing transitions from commercial manufacturing use to personal private use individuals will have the ability to print any design. Products can range from a pair of shoes to complicated engineering designs, life-saving devices, prosthetic limbs and weapons that pass airport security. In the future we will likely see printable medications and

The field of bioprinting, using 3D printing technology for producing live cells with extreme accuracy, could be the answer to many of the problems we as humans face in the medical field. It could be the end to organ waiting lists and an alternative for organ transplants. In 3D printing technology lies the potential to replace the testing of new drugs on animals. However, the idea of applying 3 dimensional printing to the health industry is still quite new and yet to have a major impact. Manufacturing working 3D organs remains an enormous challenge, but in theory could solve major issues present today.

Imagine how a brick layer builds a wall. He lays down bricks one row at a time starting with the bottom row. After finishing the topmost row, the wall

Since the 1980's people have been improving the 3D printer. Now body parts are starting to be created, but could 3D printing organs and limbs go too far? As said by Bernard in the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, "We preserve them from diseases. We keep their internal secretions artificially balanced at a youthful equilibrium” (pg 111). The world state consists of beauty and immortality. Not a single being is to have a disease or physical ailment. In modern times, humans are nothing compared to the people of the World State. People are missing body parts and are exposed to disease. Therefore, many civilians have turned to medical facility clinics to provide the necessary organs in order to survive. 3-D printing is greatly important for civilization because

It gives people power to create anything through knowledge and technology. According to Eddie Krassenstein, a co-founder and director of the largest 3D printing news publications on the web gave background information, on the history of 3D printers. The first 3D printer took 6-8 weeks to print an object, was invented by Charles Hull on March 9, 1983 (Eddie Krassenstein). With the advancement of technology, 3D printers can now printer within hours. As reported by, Robert Green a cadalyst author, a CAD programmer and an expert in CAD management expounds that, Three-dimensional printers are fast and easy to use nowadays. The printers allows people to print within hours instead of waiting weeks for your object to arrive. 3D printers use “plastics, nylon, rubber like materials, etc.” (Green 2). Mashable, a YouTube channel that uploads videos of the latest innovation in technology, global news, entertainment, and more. When we have downloaded the software into the computer and have a “blueprint or downloaded a design from thingiverse, then you can print” (Mashable). Thingiverse is a website where anyone can download free drawings and blueprints to various 3D objects and print them three dimensionally. After all the measurements of the object is correct and the design complete. You can send it or transfer it to the printer to print

Part II of this paper will focus on the process of how 3D printers produce physical objects. This section will explain the computer files that are used in order to turn them into three-dimensional objects. The most noteworthy objects so far have bene the 3D printed guns and gun parts that have been designed by Defense Distributed.

To start off with a basic definition a 3D printer is a machine ranging in size from a pen to that of a tank (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2697306/Oar-Fully-functioning-plastic-boat-created-using-worlds-biggest-3D-printer.html). They create the desired design by continously spraying or to a surgical precision laying layers of material on top of each other layer to form the design that was created through one of the many programs made to create 3D printer designs. 3D printers can use a multitude of sources to create their three dimensional final products. These sources can include but are not limited to plastic polymers, titanium, aluminum, iron, steel, and almost any ductile metal or propane product that can be heated and placed without forming into a gas or melting to a point of no return. Of course these aren’t just typical polymers or metals they have been mixed with other certain chemicals and materials to give the materials new found properties. The cost of these 3D printers can be anywhere from $140 dollars all the way up to $846,000 (3ders.org). These are just the consumer models! Take a second to imagine the industrial and prototype models which are even bigger and more complex. When making the product the 3D printer creates it in a chamber where an arm like machine continuously lays material and forms the

The 3D printing has certainly taken technology to a storm providing major solution in various industries and a step ahead in man-made new age technology. Be ready to enter into a world of 3D print technology that can be a huge leap over the human innovation and would make life

The concept of 3D printing got a lot of businesses attention, from airplane and space industries to house appliance companies. Every business and industry is thinking of ways to utilise 3D printers to their own benefit, not just business and industries, also schools, governments and individual groups of people. 3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique whereby objects are printed layer by layer through a series of slices, they work in a similar way to normal desktop printers but instead of ink, the 3D printers use other ranges of material powders. All printers use CAD or drafting software that calculates each slice size and they determine exactly how each of them should be constructed to fit in

Why go to stores and spend lots of money buying toys, jewelry, cups and many other plastic utilities when you can only press one button and print them out for yourself. This futuristic idea is not only innovating the scientific and technological world, but it is also innovating modern day households. The possibilities of 3D printing are extremely captivating, making this one of the most exciting innovations in recent times. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, makes three-dimensional solid objects from a digital model or command. To picture how this process works, 3D printers use an additive process, where adding layers of a successive material creates an object. Traditional machines, however, uses a subtractive process by

3D Printing is a unique kind of printing system, which takes a 3D image file and creates a physical 3D image. As I mentioned before 3D files are generated from what is called a .stl file, which is a compressed triangular meshed surface. “These .stl files were originally intended for a rapid prototyping process called Stereolithography, and in the beginning were generated by CAD programs; however, because MRI and CT’s are surface scans, they too can generate a .stl file. These .stl files have become a world standard for exchanging 3D mesh type objects between programs” (McNeel, Sep. 2015, par. 3). Since MRI’s and CT’s can be scanned and converted into stl files it has paved the way into many different aspects of the medical and dental industry for 3D printing. When I say the medical and dental industry I am talking about many different avenues within those industries.

With the very limited supply of organs, 3D printing creates functioning organs without a donation from a living organism. The definition of 3D printing from Charles W. Hull, the inventor of 3D systems, states that “...thin layers of a material that can be cured with ultraviolet light were sequentially printed in layers to form a solid 3D structure” (Murphy & Atala 773). The sheer narrow sheets play a vital role in bioprinting. They allow the printers to develop functional, layering individual cells, proteins, and an extracellular matrix. The three basic types of 3D printing include biomimicry, independent self- assembly, and miniature tissue blocks. The creation of the 3D structure creates all the difference between these types of printing. Three dimensional structure approaches include, creating exact duplicates of the cells and tissues with extensive knowledge, using a developing embryo as a template or using microscopic tissues to assemble into a larger developed tissue (Kalaskar). In other words, all these paths to bioprinting end up with a 3D structure but require different knowledge and materials. They all contain their own sets of challenges.

3D printing is a technology that was invented in the early 1980s by a man named Charles Hull (Ventola, 2014). Since its creation, 3D printing has branched into many different aspects of the world and is being utilized in fields like the automotive industry, medicine and is even being used for everyday purposes. Later on, Charles Hull founded a company called 3D Systems which developed the first ever 3D printer. In 1988, Hull and his company 3D Systems, put forth the first commercially available 3D printer. From this point on, 3D printing would be advanced and evolved to the point where it would have the opportunity to create a revolutionary impact on the world we