3D PRINTING :- GET TO KNOW

                              3D PRINTERS.

"3D Printing has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything."-BARACK OBAMA.

* WHAT IS 3D PRINTING?

-3D printing, also known as Additive Manufacturing (AM), refers to various processes used to synthesize a three-dimensional object.

- In 3D printing, successive layers of material are created under computer control. These objects can be of almost any shape or geometry, and are produced from a 3D model or other electronic data source.

-A 3D printer is a type of industrial robot.

*INVENTOR


CHUCK HULL

*HOW IT WORKS?

- It all starts with making a virtual design of the object you want to create.

-This virtual design is made in a CAD (Computer Aided Design) file using a 3D modeling program (for the creation of a totally new object) or with the use of a 3D scanner (to copy an existing object). A 3D scanner makes a 3D digital copy of an object.
-3D scanners use different technologies to generate a 3D model such as time-of-flight, structured / modulated light, volumetric scanning and many more.
-To prepare a digital file for printing, the 3D modeling software “slices” the final model into hundreds or thousands of horizontal layers.


-When the sliced file is uploaded in a 3D printer, the object can be created layer by layer.
-The 3D printer reads every slice (or 2D image) and creates the object, blending each layer with hardly any visible sign of the layers, with as a result the three dimensional object.


*APPLICATION

Medical industry

The outlook for medical use of 3D printing is evolving at an extremely rapid pace as specialists are beginning to utilize 3D printing in more advanced ways. Patients around the world are experiencing improved quality of care through 3D printed implants and prosthetics never before seen.

Bio-printing


-As of the early two-thousands 3D printing technology has been studied by biotech firms and academia for possible use in tissue engineering applications where organs and body parts are built using inkjet techniques.

-Layers of living cells are deposited onto a gel medium and slowly built up to form three dimensional structures. We refer to this field of research with the term: bio-printing.

Aerospace & aviation industries

-The growth in utilization of 3D printing in the aerospace and aviation industries can, for a large part, be derived from the developments in the metal additive manufacturing sector.

-NASA for instance prints combustion chamber liners using selective laser melting and as of march 2015 the FAA cleared GE Aviation’s first 3D printed jet engine part to fly: a laser sintered housing for a compressor inlet temperature sensor.

Automotive industry

- The automotive industry was among the earliest adopters of 3D printing it has for decades relegated 3d printing technology to low volume prototyping applications.

-Now a days the use of 3D printing in automotive is evolving from relatively simple concept models for fit and finish checks and design verification, to functional parts that are used in test vehicles, engines, and platforms.

-The expectations are that 3D printing in the automotive industry will generate a combined $1.1 billion dollars by 2019.

Personal Printing

-Personal 3D printing or domestic 3D printing is mainly for hobbyists and enthusiasts and really started growing in 2011.

-Because of rapid development within this new market printers are getting cheaper and cheaper, with prices typically in the range of $250 – $2,500. This puts 3D printers into more and more hands.

-The RepRap open source project really ignited this hobbyist market.

-For about a thousand dollars people could buy the RepRap kit and assemble their own desktop 3D printer. Everybody working on the RepRap shares their knowledge so other people can use it and improve it again.

*FUTURE

-It is predicted by some additive manufacturing advocates that this technological development will change the nature of commerce, because end users will be able to do much of their own manufacturing rather than engaging in trade to buy products from other people and corporations.

-3D printers capable of outputting in colour and multiple materials already exist and will continue to improve to a point where functional products will be able to be output.

-With effects on energy use, waste reduction, customization, product availability, medicine, art, construction and sciences, 3D printing will change the manufacturing world as we know it.

*IN BRIEF.