5 Amazing Books to Learn about 3D Printing
Here is a look at some of the amazing books to learn about 3D Printing:
- Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing
This was probably one of the first widely appreciated and widely sold books on 3D printing. The book explores the technology which, directly or indirectly, is going to affect each and every individual on the planet. The power of this technology is immense and in a way aptly captured by the authors.
Right from the humble beginnings to the current innovations and even exploring the future of the technology, this book has it all to keep a reader engrossed and interested. A book that is hard to put down but also filled with loads of information to ponder over. A beginner will get hooked on to 3D printing and a professional will fall in love with 3D printing all over again.
This fast-paced, engrossing and utterly engaging book is sure to delight the readers with its knowledge.
2. 3D Printing For Dummies
Like the title, this book is really for the dummies. It takes you through the process of learning from the very basic concepts to explaining the entire 3D printing technology. It is an easy-to-understand guide enabling you to create your very own 3D designs which you can 3D print. All the 3D printing technologies are explained from fused deposition to Stereolithography and from laser sintering to binder jetting. The book also shares information regarding the designing aspect, the 3D scanning and using software applications like slicers so you can start from scratch and end up with an actual 3D printed product.
It also walks you through the process of building your very own RepRap printer using the open-source design, software, and hardware. It helps in troubleshooting the print faults thereby helping you get started with 3D printing.
3. The 3D Printing Handbook: Technologies, design, and applications
3D Hubs is a known name but still, for those who are new to the world of 3D printing, 3D Hubs is an online 3D printing service platform operating across the world in over 150 countries.
Going by the credibility of 3D hubs, it is safe to say that the book has pure professional knowledge amassed over the years of its operations. The book is purely for the professionals who want to master their skills. With insights, views and case studies from industry experts, this book will serve as your guide for all your professional 3D printing needs. The books mainly talks about:
Insights into the mechanism behind all major 3D printing technologies
Basic understanding of the advantages and limitations of 3D printing technologies
Decision-making tools for technology selection and even design guidelines.
4. MAKE: Design for 3D Printing & Make: Getting Started with 3D Printing
Both these two books were published by the Maker Media. ‘Design for 3D Printing’ was published in 2015 while ‘Getting Started with 3D Printing’ was published one year later in 2016.
While the first book dealt with the designing part of the technology, the second book explores a much broader aspect of 3D printing. Both these books are great for people who are just starting out. These books complement each other very well and are often bought together.
In Design For 3D Printing book, you will learn about the different 3D printing technologies, the best desktop 3D printer to buy, explore the various freely available 3D modeling software, and even learn how to improve your prints by understanding the fundamentals of the 3D printer functionality.
Getting Started with 3D Printing is more about the practicality and offers tutorials, short exercises which the reader can learn and apply. This is especially useful to people who want to start immediately irrespective of its final use of the 3D printer be it at home or at his workplace.
5. Printing Things: Visions and Essentials for 3D Printing
This is quite an eccentric book when compared with other books on the 3D printing domain. It is simply refreshing from the way knowledge it shares with the reader. 3D printing is a ‘cool’ and ‘fresh’ technology and this book totally justifies this freshness.
The authors, designers, themselves have worked, used, designed and experimented on 3D printers extensively. They have sparked debates with their experiments. This duo built a 3D printing kiosk and walked around at the Milan Furniture Fair in Milan and kept scanning new objects which they later 3D printed, not without numerous iterations, remixes, modifications, and corrections.
Though this book starts off with the fundamentals of 3D printing, it quickly an as easily flows to other less talked about topics on the empowerment it gives to the general public, the power it has provided the designers, the shifting global manufacturing environment. After this, the book makes you hold your breath as you scan through a stream of exciting things artists, designers, professional, architects and similar people across the globe are doing with a 3D printer.
The book is a gem and sure to arouse creative thinking even among the less creative souls.
Worth A Mention:
1. The Great Disruption: Competing and Surviving in the Second Wave of the Industrial Revolution by Rick Smith & Mitch Free
This book focuses on the new-age revolution brought about by 3D printing technology. It explores this phenomenon and how it will impact our lives in a big way.
2. 3D Printing: Legal, Philosophical and Economic Dimensions by Bibi van den Berg, Simone van der Hof &Eleni Kosta
This is a book which has tried to address the less talked about legal, social and economic issues concerned with 3D printing. Interestingly, it also talks about the philosophical issues too which the author think we will experience with the rise of 3D printing.