Over the last couple of years 3D printing has become something many people have heard of. Prior to this advent 3D printing, also known as stereolithography, was unfamiliar to many. However, 3D printing has been around for many years, mostly present in industry; as a result, 3D printers were large and expensive. A new dawn has begun with desktop 3D printers: as I write this I am sitting next to a MakerGear M2.
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| MakerGear M2, an extrusion based desktop 3D printer [1]. |
3D printing is an additive manufacturing process, which means that something is added to create a shape as opposed to subtractive manufacturing where material is removed from something to create a shape.There are a wide variety of additive manufacturing processes. While most affordable desktop printers use a process whereby a filament is extruded through a heated nozzle, other companies such as formlabs use resin and a laser process to create their parts. Different techniques offer different advantages; for example, some styles of additive manufacturing processes allow for fabrication with metal, where extrusion printing mostly uses ABS or PLA. Most commonly used in the desktop printer movement are PLA and ABS which are reasonably durable and cheap. Other materials can be used with extrusion printers, as long as the printer is able to meet the temperature requirements of the material. More materials are being engineered each day. For example, 3D printable wood:
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| Owls printed from a 3D printer using wood filament [2]. |
With the trend of desktop 3D printers, which will get cheaper with time, we are enabling a whole new generation to let their imaginations run wild. Ever needed a gear for your broken R/C car? Print it! As 3D printers have become more popular and gained attention in the public’s eye, more newsworthy stories have arisen, such as 3D printed organs, prosthetics , houses, cars, guns and much more including food. As 3D printing has become more familiar it has created a world of possibilities. The time and cost for prototyping can be greatly reduced, which brings us to why this technology could be so revolutionary for science.
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| 3D printed car made by Local Motors [3]. |
Putting the power of prototyping into the hands of many gives citizen scientists the ability to design things from scratch using CAD, computer-aided design. This in conjunction with microprocessors such as Arduino allow for cheap electronic integration, making the possibilities for what the average citizen with a 3D printer can create nearly limitless. The guide that I have been following to create my hive counter uses both microprocessors and 3D printing. Many citizen scientists have also taken to 3D printing. More significant contributions have been made such as 3D printed prosthetics programs. Ultimately 3D printing makes innovation cheaper and more accessible. Many scientists have taken to using 3D printers to design parts of apparatuses; some have even used 3D printing to create 3D printed blossoms, which gives the scientist precise control over the shape and appearance of the flower reducing influencing factors and increase the ease of replication. Other examples include 3D printed rocket engines saving vast amount of production time, star collisions where 3D printed models allowed for a better representation than a picture, and many others.
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| 3D printed ear [4]. |
As more people become comfortable with 3D printing as a solution to problems, more technology will begin to utilize 3D printing. As a matter of fact the MakerGear M2 uses 3D printed parts in its physical construction. Ease of prototyping and low cost allow for researchers, scientists and hobbyists to design instruments and tools, decreasing the cost of experimentation. Furthermore, instead of waiting for something to arrive to conduct an experiment, scientists and researchers could 3D print the item if what is needed is 3D printable. Less time waiting and more time experimenting means faster evolution of technologies. Furthermore, 3D printing makes science accessible to more people whereby there would be more innovation.
Further Reading:
Kinds of 3D Printers and Stereolithography:
3D Printed Future:
CAD:
Extrusion Materials:
3D Printed Organs, Tissues and Food:
Media Credits:
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