The applications of 3D printing that are revolutionizing our world. (Part 2 of 2)

In part 1 of this series, we covered the cutting-edge phenomenon of 3D printing. In this blog, we’ll go into the specific uses of the technology that are already changing the world.

The invention of the printing press, the advent of vaccines and modern medicine, the industrial revolution, the computer age, and the prevalence of social media all completely transformed our world, altering the course of history and bringing on innovations that weren’t even imaginable before. But there’s another revolution right at our front door that will be just as profound, yet few people realize it. The dawn of the 3d printing revolution is here and ready permeate into just about every aspect of society. 

Medical applications of 3D printing:

Perhaps the greatest good that will come out of 3d printing will be in the field of medical and surgical advancements. Remarkably, specialized 3d printers can actually serve as “bio-printers,” replicating human tissue, vascular systems, or even bone replacements through the printing process. This isn’t speculation about some futuristic sci-fi technology; this is already possible now! Consider these recent cases, all possible with 3d printing:

A British patient had a titanium pelvis successfully implanted, which was manufactured by a 3d printer.

A patient in Belgium had a titanium lower jaw transplant.

A plastic tracheal splint was successfully used to keep an American infant alive.

In 2014, a five-year old girl in the UK who was born without fully formed fingers on her left hand was given a special gift thanks to 3d printing, a perfect prosthetic hand.

Last year, surgeons in Swansea used 3d printing medical technology to rebuild the face of a motorcyclist that had been critically injured in an accident.

3D printing technology is also expected to make a huge impact in the hearing aid and dental industries.

Already, 3d printers can create human tissue that can be implanted to replace cancerous cells that were removed.

It’s not only humans that can benefit form these medical advances; in 2014 a Chihuahua, born without front legs, was fitted with a special harness and wheels that was made with a 3D printer, which let the little dog get around and enjoy a happy life.

So how does it work? Instead of printing with ink or other materials, medical 3D printers generate layers of living cells that are deposited onto a gel or sugar matrix. These are slowly built up to form three-dimensional structures that replicate tissue or even bone. It’s predicted that within the next decade or so, we’ll be able to “print” fully functioning organs and entire bones. That would ostensibly eliminate the need for organ donors and waiting times, saving thousands or even millions of lives.

Environmental uses for 3D printing:

3D printing will have a monumental positive effect on protecting our environment. Not only does traditional subtractive manufacturing use way more fossil fuels, consume more energy, and produce waste and pollutants, but 3D printing can actually help clean up our current mess. They’ve created automated machines called RecycleBots that can sift through tons of recycled materials to pull out harmful plastics. From there, a processing technology called Filastruder can covert the waste plastics into inexpensive filaments that 3D printers can use, sort of like liquid 3D ink. With billions of plastic water bottles in landfills leaching harmful toxins into our water and soil, this would go a long way to start reversing the process.

More over, the uses of 3D printing to aid and heal the environment are almost limitless. Already in the small Middle Eastern country of Bahrain, they are using large-scale 3D printers to replicate a material that looks and feels like coral. They install it underwater, which fosters real coral to colonize and regenerate their damaged reefs.

3D printing in building and construction.

Of course this is a blog from the Alfano Real Estate Group, so we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the myriad uses of 3D printing in home building and commercial construction. Large-scale 3D printers can create construction materials similar to concrete to be used to erect buildings. As the technology of 3D printing improves, large-scale commercial projects will be possible. The movement from pre-fab to custom-fab will change what is possible in the realm of home building, with customizations and personalization literally only a click of a button away. Very soon, someone will endeavor to “print” an entire livable house!

Science and research applications.

Although 3D printing technology was invented in the United States, other countries have led the way with developing its applications. China, for one, saw the potential early, committing $500 million and establishing 10 national 3D printing technology institutes to develop the technology. Chinese scientists have already printed ears, livers, and kidneys with human tissue. They can even print chemical compounds.

All across the world, researchers from different fields are practically rejoicing at the practical applications of 3D printing. For instance, archeologists can now print perfect replicates of priceless and fragile relics, which they can then use to further their research and deconstruct and construct at will. It won’t be long before every museum is 3D printing dinosaur bones, statues, and artifacts.

3D printing and digital technology.

In a terrific twist of inventiveness, 3D printers can actually be used to manufacture laptops, computers, and…get this – other 3D printers! They aren’t completely self replicable yet as memory chips or hard drives aren’t being printed yet, but that’s probably coming soon. 

The possibilities extend far beyond our planet earth, as 3D printing is already being used in outer space. In 2014, the International Space Station needed a very specific socket wrench to make some repairs. Instead of sending a craft up to deliver, they sent up a 3D printer with the SpaceX shuttle. The printer, specially designed to work in zero gravity, went to work once NASA emailed the CAD plans, and the astronauts manufactured the tool and made the necessary repairs. It won’t be a surprise if every future space mission is outfitted with 3D printers to make in-mission repairs thousands of miles from home.

3D printing and the culinary arts:

How can 3D printing possibly have anything to do with food? In one of the most fun uses of this technology, you can even put edible liquefied substances in 3D printers as “ink.” Already, chefs and culinary experts are using chocolate, frosting, cheese, and many more with specialized 3D printers for food that use syringes to dispense the treats and make some incredible edible works of art.

The easy of 3D printing consumer goods:

Just about any objet can be produced with a 3D printer, including anything made from plastic, glass, precious metals, polymers, and sand and glue mixtures. Already we’re seeing 3D printing taking over the world of consumer goods, as jewelry, models, children’s toys, and fashion prototypes by companies like Nike and Under Armour are under way. The potential to get a perfect fit for eyeglasses, bikinis, and shoes is a reality now without custom manufacturing. How archaic it seems now to pre-make standardized shoes and hope our feet fit into them instead of measuring the foot perfectly with the aid of computers and producing the exact-fitting footwear.  The Vapor Lasor Talon football cleat was produced in 2012 and New Balance is also manufacturing custom fit shoes.

3D printing is also expanding the frontiers and definitions of art, as reported by the Wall Street Journal in and Time Magazine, who recently listed 3D printed design among their 100 most influential designs of the year.

3D printing automobiles:

Car manufacturers around the world are hard at work developing large-scale 3D printing to the point where they can completely produce a car with additive manufacturing. It seems that will be a reality in months, not years, as already the Swedish supercar manufacturer, Koenigsegg, announced the release of One:1, a supercar that is made of mostly 3D printed parts. As far back as 2010 the Urbee, a hybrid auto with an ultra-modern look made by U.S engineering group Kor Ecologic, used some 3D printed parts. And Local Motors, an American car manufacturer, is working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Cincinnati Incorporated to get their additive manufacturing systems up to par so they can print entire cars from start to finish.

The controversy around 3D printing firearms.

Just like with any brand new and ground breaking technology, there is a dark side to its use as criminals or profiteers look to cash in. The makers of 3D printing never imagined that people would be using these printers to make fully functioning firearms right at home, but that’s become the reality in recent years.

Ammunition is also in play as 3D weapons manufacturer, Defense Distributed has already designed an AR-15 type magazine that holds more than 650 rounds and a 30-round M16 magazine.

Of course when someone prints a gun at home it’s not registered, permitted, and the bullets are untraceable. There have been several instances of this happening in the United States and in 2014, a Japanese man, Yoshitomo Imura, was sentenced to 2 years in prison for making 3D firearms.

But interestingly enough, it’s not the actual firearms themselves that authorities worry the most about, but the design plans or CAD drawings. If those are readily disseminated online, then virtually anyone could make their own firearm.

The issue is so concerning, yet in such a gray area, that the US Department of Homeland Security and the Joint Regional Intelligence Center recently released a memo citing "significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing,” and that “Proposed legislation to ban 3D printing of weapons may deter, but cannot completely prevent their production. Even if the practice is prohibited by new legislation, online distribution of these 3D printable files will be as difficult to control as any other illegally traded music, movie or software files."

The 3D printing revolution is ready to change the world. Here's what you should know.

The invention of the printing press, the advent of vaccines and modern medicine, the industrial revolution, the computer age, and the prevalence of social media all completely transformed our world, altering the course of history and bringing on innovations that weren’t even imaginable before. But there’s another revolution right at our front door that will be just as profound, yet few people realize it. The dawn of the 3d printing revolution is here and ready permeate into just about every aspect of society. 

In this blog we’ll explain the basics of 3d printing, and next time we’ll write about the creative, cool, and mind-boggling uses of 3d printing. And check out part 2 of this blog, the revolutionary uses of 3D printing that are already changing the world!

What is 3D printing?

3D printing is a process where materials are shot from a nozzle. But unlike a traditional printer that uses ink and paper, 3D printers dispense a substance onto moving platforms, eventually creating an object instead of a 2-dimensional document or picture.

How does 3d printing work?

3D printers shoot all sorts of materials onto moving platforms layer by layer. The layers are extremely thin but eventually build up a 3-dimensional item. The real name for this process is “Additive Manufacturing” but it’s commonly known as 3D printing.

3D printers can work with almost any material that can be liquefied, like plastics, glass, metal, polymers, wax, nylon, and sand and glue mixes. You can even use some foods with 3d printers and amazingly, human tissue is even being “printed” with these tools.

The 3D printer knows what to add, when, and how much to achieve a perfect finished product based on a CAD, or Computer Aided Design, file that’s created digitally and uploaded via computer.

Why is 3d printing so revolutionary?

The industrial revolution changed the world in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, allowing standardization and mass production in manufacturing the products that we use every day. The next great revolution in technology brought on the digital age of personal computing, internet, mobile devices and social media.

But now, 3d printing is combining the two and ready to propel us light years ahead. Instead of traditional manufacturing where have prefabricated objects and parts that are expensive to design, mass produce, and require storage and shipping, people can just design what they need on the spot. So ideally, if someone in rural farm in South Dakota needed a part to fix their irrigation system, instead of ordering the part and driving a long way to get it or waiting for a long time to have it shipped, they could just download the CAD plans, upload it to their 3d printer, produce one perfect replica, and be back in business in hours. It will exponentially reduce the need for inventory, shipping, and alter the cost and timeline of producing any physical object. And just like cell phones and YouTube brought the world of instant information and communication to isolated areas of developing countries all across the world, 3d printing will ostensibly eliminate the need for machinery or distribution channels.

What’s the cost of 3d printing?

There is a wide range of price options to purchase 3d printers depending on their scale and use. For instance, one that you’d find that does large scale and large run industrial printing might cost $200,000. A good office 3d printer for manufacturing goes for $10,000-$50,000, and there are home models for consumers that cost only $500 to around $2,000. The cost of 3d printers has dropped dramatically in the decades since additive manufacturing has been in existence, but mostly since 2010. There are now basic home 3d printing kits for $200 and plans to bring that cost even lower.

And if you don’t want to purchase your own printer, there are plenty of services so you can outsource your projects and get even one item printed.

The history of additive manufacturing: 

The first 3D printing process was invented in 1984 and patented in 1986 by a man named Charles Hull who worked at 3D Systems. Hull designed a stereolithography (SLA) method by which a beam of ultraviolet light was focused onto the surface of a vat filled with liquid photocurable resin. The beam of light hardened the resin once it hit it, building a form one later at a time. Of course it wasn’t called 3D printing yet.

Additive Manufacturing was a completely different process than the conventional Subtractive Manufacturing, where a larger piece of metal, wood, etc. was molded and formed down to a smaller, finished shape and size, which was wasteful, inefficient, time and labor intensive, and can be imprecise.

Large manufacturers used 3d printing for decades, especially to build prototypes for machinery they’d later develop, but the technology really took a huge leap forward in speed, accuracy, range of uses, and lower prices in 2010, which sparked rampant growth and new developments.

The different types of 3d printing:

There are several variations of the additive manufacturing process that use different technologies, materials, and methods to achieve the same result.

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), invented in the 1980s by Scott Crump, produces an object by layering a stream of thermoplastic material.

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) was also invented in the 1980s, this time by Carl Deckard and his colleagues at the University of Texas. The big difference is that SLS printing uses powdered materials that are fused into the finished form when a laser is directed on them.

PolyJet printing uses a photopolymer liquid that is dispensed and then hardened with a UV light.

And Syringe Extrusion uses more malleable contents like clay, cement, and silicones to form the desired models. It can even use Play-Doh and certain foods

Modern adaptations of 3d printing:

Before 2010, the price of 3d printing was prohibitive, as was the design process that used CAD files, which required very specific design and computer program skills like architects use. But since 2010, the prices have dropped and the technology improved exponentially, increasing its popularity. There are also new computer programs that make it easier for the average untrained person to produce the CAD plans necessary to print, including Google’s Sketchup, Blender, Shapeways, and Ponoko.

One model of 3d printer, the RepRap, has revolutionized the potential of personal 3d printing like nothing before it, similar to how the Apple I computer changed micro computing in the 1970s. At only about $1,000 per printer, the RepRap kit, which stands for Replicating Rapid Prototype, allowed people to assemble their own fully functioning 3d printer at home.

Here’s where it gets fascinating – once you have a RepRap, you can even 3d print most of the parts needed to build more printers. So once you have one, it can almost completely self replicate. They still can’t print and self replicate their own circuit boards, but that technology is will come one day soon!

What can you print with 3d printers?

The uses for 3D printing are almost as limitless as our imaginations, and already there are some jaw-dropping applications that have become reality. Already 3d printing is making waves in the fields of medicine, science and research, environmental preservation, building and construction, space exploration, consumer goods, social philanthropy, food, and art.

Issues and social implications of 3d printing:

Just like any new, groundbreaking technology, the uses and implications are limitless and still being explored. 3d printing is expected to bring amazing strides in medicine, education, and empowering people in poor and developing countries if used correctly. But there is always a dark side to powerful technology, just like when the atom bomb was created from the first discovery of atomic energy. Already, people are using 3d printing to print homemade guns and firearms that aren’t registered and can’t be traced. It’s also easy to counterfeit goods. There are frontiers of patenting, property rights, and intellectual property laws that are all up in the air. But there’s no doubt that 3d printing will bring on some fascinating advances in human history, completely changing the world we live in. 

To read part 2, click here.http://thealfanogroup.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-applications-of-3d-printing-that.html