What Is A 3D Printer?
How Do 3D Printers Influence The Maker Movement?
You may or may not have heard of the recent movement going on in technological circles, but it’s already being used in many ways to improve people’s lives. Whether it’s a prosthetic arm or a house made of mud or even a chocolate bar, 3D printing is changing the world. However since it is such a recent phenomenon many people aren’t yet aware of 3D printing or how it can immediately benefit them.
So what is 3D printing? What are 3D printers?
As defined by 3dprinting.com, “3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file.” Therefore 3D printers are machines which conduct the process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. All 3D printing technologies and materials according to 3dhubs.com are based on the same principle: “a digital model is turned into a solid three-dimensional physical object by adding material layer by layer.” Additive manufacturing is where an object is created by adding material layer by layer.
Additive manufacturing is when an object is created by adding material layer by layer.
How do 3D printers work?
3D printing begins when you want to design the object you want to create in the printer. The virtual design is called a CAD (computer assisted design) file, which is created by a 3D modeling application or 3D scanner (which copies existing objects). 3D scanners can make 3D digital copies of an object. Printing without a design file in 3D printing is like printing without a text file for a sheet of paper in traditional printing. The design file is then sliced into thin layers by a computer and then sent to a 3D printer.
After the design file is sent to a 3D printer the printing process varies depending on the technology involved, but all of it involves heating and melting metal or plastic or rubber or other material depending on the kind of material involved and what it will be used for. Depending on the project and the size of the product this process can take hours to complete and then the products are post-processed to achieve their desired look.
3D scanners use different technologies to create a 3D model, for example: time-of-flight, structured/modulated light, and volumetric scanning. Companies like Microsoft and Google recently enabled their hardware to perform 3D scanning
3D modeling software comes in many different types, such as industrial grade software which costs thousands a year per license, and free open source software (for example Blender).
A Brief History of 3D Printers
Believe it or not, 3D printing has actually been around for more than 30 years! The first 3D printing process, called “stereolithography”, was invented by Chuck Hull in 1983. He defined stereolithography as “a method and apparatus for making solid objects by successively “printing” thin layers of the ultraviolet curable material one on top of the other”. The first patent Hull worked with only focused on printing a light curable liquid, but he discovered the true potential of 3D printing after founding the company “3D Systems” and that it could be used for (as he defined it) “any material capable of solidification or capable of altering its physical state”. From this discovery, he developed additive manufacturing, a.k.a. 3D printing.
For most of its history 3D printing was used in industrial settings until 2009 when the patent for one of the most common 3D printing technologies, called fused deposition modeling (FDM), expired. This opened up a huge opportunity to greatly expand the patents for 3D printing technologies, and as 3D printing got more patents, the cost of 3D printing decreased dramatically, from an average cost of $200,000 to less than $2000, which opened the door for the consumer 3D printing market. Since then 3D printer sales have skyrocketed and as 3D printing gains more consumers and patents, there will be a rapid increase in innovations from 3D printing. 3D printing sales are doubling every year.
Pros and Cons of 3D Printing
3D printers as they are a relatively new technology still have many flaws that are being worked out, such as a higher cost for large production runs, as because of the current cost of production, the most amount of units that can be manufactured per production run are between 1,000 and 10,000 units, but as raw materials and cost of production continue to decrease, this is expected to become increasingly efficient. 3D printers also have only six hundred different types of raw materials they are currently made from (mostly plastics and metals) which is still very limited compared to conventional raw material industries. Despite this, the industry is rapidly catching up and the number of new materials being printed every year is increasing, from wood to metals to composites to ceramics and to even edible materials such as chocolate. Some 3D printing technologies don’t have a uniform part strength because of the layer-by-layer fabrication process, which makes these parts weaker than traditionally manufactured counterparts. Also parts made on different machines may have different properties, however these problems are getting solved as well due to continued technological improvements such as 3D printing processes like Carbon3D, so these limits are soon likely to disappear. 3D printing also is not yet capable of creating high precision objects which require more working parts and finer details, however the precision of 3D printers in creating objects is currently around 20–100 microns, and can create objects with few design details extremely well. As the technology steadily improves, these bugs will eventually be worked out.
3D printers despite the cons come with more pros which shows their great potential for success. 3D printers are quite capable of creating complex designs which cannot be produced by conventional manufacturing methods. 3D printing is also extremely customizable by making the changes digitally which allows the manufacturers to create any design they want off of the computer without needing additional manufacturing costs. In 3D printing, since it is a “single tool” process, there is no need for tools and molds and there are lower fixed costs since the 3D printer only has to create one mold. Traditional manufacturing requires that each part of a product be molded separately, which makes production much more costly. There is a great speed and ease of prototyping and products made from 3D printers have a much faster and less risky because there is no expensive tooling required, which makes it easy for innovators who want to do their own thing and do market testing, small production runs, or launch their products through crowdfunding sites. Traditional manufacturing processes are subtractive, meaning the material is cut, put in a machine, and milled until it has been processed as the intended design, in which 90% of raw material is lost during the process. 3D printing on the other hand is an additive process in which you create an object from the raw material layer by layer, which causes it to only use the necessary material needed to create an object. Any leftover material can be recycled and remade into more 3D printed objects, therefore making 3D printing more environmentally friendly.
The 3D Printing Process (from What Is 3D Printing? 3dprinting.com)
It turns out that there is not just one 3D printing process, but there are seven! These seven processes are:
- Vat Photopolymerization
- Material Jetting
- Binder Jetting
- Material Extrusion
- Powder Bed Fusion
- Sheet Lamination
- Directed Energy Deposition
3D printers with the vat photopolymerization method is have containers filled with photopolymer resin which is then hardened with a UV light source. The most common technology in this method is stereolithography, which uses a vat of liquid ultraviolet curable photopolymer resin and an ultraviolet laser to build the object’s layers one at a time.
In the material jetting process, material is applied in droplets through a small diameter nozzle, similar to the way an inkjet paper printer, however it is applied layer-by-layer to a platform making a 3D object and then hardened by UV light.
In the binder jetting process, two materials are used: powder base material and a liquid binder. In the build chamber, powder is spread in equal layers and binder gets applied through jet nozzles which “glue” the powder particles together in the shape of a 3D object. Binder remains in the container are used to glue together the completed object with powder based material. Once the print is completed, any remaining powder gets cleaned off and prepared for the next printing.
In material extrusion, the most commonly used technology in this method is called fused deposition modeling (FDM). FDM is also known as fused filament fabrication (FFF). FDM uses a plastic filament or a metal wire which is unwound from a coil and supplying material to an extrusion nozzle which can turn the flow on and off. The nozzle is heated so that the material can be moved in both horizontal and vertical directions by a numerically controlled mechanism, controlled directly by a computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software package. The object is produced by extruding melted material to form layers as the material hardens immediately after extrusion from the nozzle. This technology is most widely used with two plastic filament material types: ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) and PLA (Polylactic acid) but many other materials are available ranging in properties from wood filed, conductive, flexible, and other properties.
Powder bed fusion, also known as selective laser sintering (SLS), selective laser melting (SLM), or direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) is a technology that uses a high powered laser to fuse small particles of plastic, metal, ceramic, or glass powders into a mass with the desired 3D shape. Sintering is the process of making powdered materials coalesce into a solid or porous mass by heating it or compressing it without liquefaction. The laser selectively fuses the powdered material by scanning the cross-sections, or layers, generated by the 3D modeling program on the surface of a powder bed. After each cross-section is scanned, the powder bed is lowered by one layer thickness. Then a new layer of material is applied on top and the process is repeated until the object is completed and in the process any extra powder is used to become a support structure for the object and anything unused is used in the next printing. DMLS is the layer-by-layer sintering of metal powders using a laser beam. SLS is similar to DMLS, but it uses plastics, ceramics, glass, etc. DMLS and SLS do not completely melt the materials. SLM is a method that is similar to SLS but it completely melts the metal, fusing the metal molecules together. Stratasys, Inc. is a leading company that uses this model. Powder bed fusion is an expensive method of 3D printing which is out of the reach of most people’s budgets because of the high-tech lasers.
Sheet lamination is a process that involves material in sheets which is bound together by external force. The sheets can be metal, paper, or a polymer. Metal sheets are welded together by ultrasonic welding in layers and then CNC milled into a proper shape. Mcor Technologies is a leading company that uses this model.
Directed energy deposition is a process used in the high-tech metal industry and in rapid manufacturing applications. The 3D printing apparatus is usually attached to a multi-axis robotic arm and has a nozzle that deposits metal powder or wire on a surface and an energy source (laser, electron beam, or plasma arc) that melts it in order to form a solid object.
How and Where to Learn 3D Printing
Where to find resources to learn more about and learn how to do 3D printing? Where to find 3D printers?
Thingiverse and Blender are two of the most common websites for learning how to 3D print. Blender is a free open source 3D creation suite that supports the entire 3D pipeline (which consists of modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, video editing, and game creation). Advanced users of the website can use the programming language Python to create more advanced models and use more specialized tools. Thingiverse is more of a forum and community that emphasizes discovering, making, and sharing 3D printable things. In addition to Thingiverse and Blender there are many other popular websites to learn 3D printing and designing utilize these skills in the marketplace. Pinshape is a community marketplace for connecting 3D printing designers, makers, manufacturers, etc. where people explore, share, and download high-quality 3D printable designs. Tinkercad is a 3D design and printing app used by designers, hobbyists, teachers, kids, and innovators to make all kinds of different products and objects. Tinkercad says that it allows you to imagine anything and design it within minutes. Shapeways is an online platform in which 3D designers can create their own shops selling products ranging from tech, accessories, jewelry, art, home decor, games, miniatures, etc. It is also a place where one can learn how to do 3D designing and printing, join their online community, and they offer opportunities to make a career out of 3D designing and printing. MyMiniFactory is the world’s leading curator social platform for 3D objects, in other words, it is a community platform like SoundCloud or Vimeo for 3D printing. Tens of thousands of 3D designs can be found to be downloaded for free which can work on any desktop 3D printer. MyMiniFactory also connects 3D designers, makers, and brands to a community where people create and sell 3D designs. Another great website to learn how to 3D print is called 3D Printing for Beginners which features a lot of great tutorials and is hosted by two brothers from Luxembourg who provide a roadmap for absolute beginners.
Where to Buy a 3D Printer?
3D printers are becoming more mainstream and have been appearing in retail stores such as Best Buy, Walmart, Home Depot, and also online retailers such as Amazon. From the website 3DPrint.com (http://bit.ly/1R1iSWc), there is an extensive list of the current best 3D printers on the market (http://bit.ly/2dVLicV) and a guide on how to find the best 3D printer for yourself (http://bit.ly/2dEYaVJ).
How 3D Printers Can Benefit Communities
3D printing has many different uses, ranging from medicine to aerospace to prototyping to art and education and more. In recent years 3D printed models of human organs have been developed in medical research to create physical replicas of whatever patient’s’ organs the surgeons are working on. Companies like Organovo have been researching how to 3D print partial human organs, livers and kidneys in particular, as well as human liver tissue for pharmaceutical toxicology testing. Their printing process involves using hydro gels infused with living cells to create the tissue. This technology is still early in its development however it will most likely eventually pay off in the next 15–20 years as it’s possible that entire human organs will be successfully replicated through 3D printing. 3D printing is also working well in the area of customized open source prosthetic limb fabrication, for example organizations like Enabling the Future print prosthetic hands and arms priced below $2000 to those with amputated hands and arms. Various prosthetic body parts have also been produced for many different animal species to help them out. Additive manufacturing also helps significantly reduce the costs of aircraft and spacecraft production for air and space companies as well as organizations like NASA and the ESA and militaries from around the world. As 3D printed aerospace material is stronger and much more lightweight than traditionally manufactured aerospace material, it saves these organizations and companies lots of fuel and money. Prototyping is another common use of 3D printing as manufacturing companies use it to reduce costs, save time, and increase product quality. This eliminates the need for third party outsourcing of prototype designs and allows these companies to create their desired designs immediately. 3D printing also is immensely beneficial for those with an artistic inclination, as artists are able to write their ideas on a computer screen and then design digital models of exactly what they envision and then create physical versions of those models. This will allow people to learn hands-on, create their own products, and visualize what they see in their heads and foster creativity. 21st century education will also eventually make 3D printing a necessary classroom component, as the job market will increasingly demand 3D printing skills as a necessity.The potential of 3D printers is so great that even entire buildings are beginning to be 3D printed. The World’s Advanced Saving Project (WASP) created the world’s largest delta-style 3D printer. The BigDelta printer is 12 meters (40 feet) tall and is a thin gigantic metal frame with four rings and this year it has nearly completed its first prototype house out of mud at a cost of only 48 euros so far. Italian innovator Massimo Moretti started WASP in order to create affordable housing for the poor and was inspired by how mud dauber wasps create their homes from mud and saw that since mud is almost everywhere it could have a low environmental footprint and provide immediate insulation. The BigDelta printer lays about 60 cm-1 meter of material every day until the house is complete. When this house is complete it will be an impressive feat.
Conclusion
3D printing appears to be one of the essential technologies of the 21st century to learn how to use. Also known as additive manufacturing, it is the process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. They are quite diverse in their types and methods of 3D printing and have come a long way since their creation in the 1980s by Chuck Hull. 3D printers still have many flaws but those flaws are being worked on constantly as the experimentation of the technology continues to innovate. 3D printer can benefit communities in an enormous number of ways from prosthetic limbs to aerospace to prototyping to art and education and could even potentially solve the affordable housing problem. Therefore the potential of these machines is something I cannot wait to see unfold as the technology improves and the years pass.
