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Using Metal And Plastic Products For Consumers

Good Essays

3-D printing came about in the 1980s (Atala & Murphy, 2014). This printing method made it possible to print materials in layers to eventually form a solid 3-D structure. The possibilities of this printing were considered for manufacturing products for consumers (Atala & Murphy, 2014). The original 3-D printers were capable of making objects, but these objects weren’t durable enough to last long (Harris, n.d.). The original printers were mainly used to create models. The process used to create these models was a “laser to solidify a polymer material extruded from a nozzle” (Harris, n.d.). It wasn’t until the 1990s that the different materials of metal and plastic were used together in conjunction with the computer following an engineer’s layout of the product. The new technical layout scheme and materials made it possible to produce a sturdier product that would last (Harris, n.d.). These new developments led to medical researchers considering the possibilities of producing human tissues and organs. The researchers realized that a human organ is a 3-D object with width, height, and depth that could be manufactured the same way car parts could (Harris, n.d.). There were multiple limitations to make a 3-D printer capable of producing human tissue or organs. A few restrictions were to find another material besides plastic that would last inside of a human and to make a machine that was capable of printing living human tissue without destroying the cells in the process.

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