One Can 3D Print
Almost Anything:
a Car, an Elegant
Dress or an Arm Prosthesis.
So What?
Helena Dodziuk
E-mail: dodziuk10@vp.pl, hdodziuk@ichf.edu.pl
© Helena Dodziuk
Fig.
1. M200 printer of Polish company Zortrax, which was classified as the best in
its category by the 3d hubs site. © Zortrax.pl
3D printing is not new; there was an opinion expressed
on the Internet that this method was patented in the 1970s.
The term was first applied by Prof. Ely Sachs of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology) in 1995. In industry until recently this method was used almost
exclusively for preparation of tools and prototypes. However, we are now at a
crucial time in the development of this method of production. Not only it is
beginning to be used by individuals (at the moment mainly in the USA, UK and some
other countries – the list is rapidly expanding), but it is now also beginning
to be used on an industrial scale by large corporations. Until recently it took
a very long time for great revolutionary inventions to find applications that
changed lives of masses. Today, the rapidly developing method of 3D printing not
only offers numerous marketed applications but promises to bring much more in
the future and its influence on society is hard to grasp. The technique earlier
used mainly to build tools and prototypes, is now being transferred to mass
production by big corporations: General Electric, Ford, Mattel, Airbus to name but a few. The first fully 3D printed car Strati is worth mentioning here, too. Remarkably, it took four years to design it but only 44 hours to
3D print a driving prototype.
Fig. 2. Strati car
printed by the Local Motors company. © Local Motors.
This
manufacturing method expands into various fields offering, for instance,
prostheses adapted to individual patients in medicine, replacement parts for
washing machines or refrigerators that ordinary people can make themselves. Files
for the 3D printing of some such parts can be downloaded for free from the Thingiverse
site. Fabulous 3D printed dresses, shoes
(Fig. 3) or jewelry evoke admiration. We will discuss such applications below
in more detail.
Fig. 3. A shoe designed by Julian Hakes shown at 3D Print Show 2015 in
Berlin. © H. Dodziuk.
3D Printing and its advantages
3D printers operate in a way similar to popular
ink-jet printers but instead of ink they use plastic, metal, organic or other material
extruded from nozzles. The basis, the design, is created by a computer-aided
design (CAD) method or by 3D scanning. Today you can 3D print from your laptop, smartphone, tablet or regular PC
equipped with a scanner.
The design has to be submitted to the printer in form of slices of 3D object to
be printed. The orientation of slicing is one of the most significant
manufacturing decisions that cannot be computerized or automated but has to be
made by engineers. The thickness of slices, typically, 0.1 mm for polymers and
30 µm for metals is determined by the type of 3D printer and the material
involved. The layers corresponding to slices of the 3D pattern are printed
successively, solidified and the layers are fused together. After each step,
the work surface is lowered by the thickness of the layer to allow for the next
layer to be printed. This prevents warping of the material.
It
should be emphasized that the 3D printing, also known as the additive manufacturing, is fundamentally
different from the classical method of subtractive
manufacturing involving the use of tools such as lathe or milling machines,
which form the desired element by removing unnecessary material from the block.
The Wikipedia defines 3D printing as production of three-dimensional objects of
any shape on the basis of a digital model.
What can be used as 'ink'? Polymers, metallic powders,
rubber, sand, carbon fibers, organic materials (for example, cells and wood but
also chocolate), mixtures, almost everything.
Watch
the 3D printing on YouTube.
3D printing
has several advantages over the traditional methods of manufacturing.
1.
3D printing offers possibilities of manufacturing in a
single run of very complicated shapes which are difficult to make by
conventional methods. You cannot make as one piece the model of astrolabium
presented below (Fig. 4). A 3D printed jet engine nozzle made by General Electric, which is currently investing heavily in large-scale
use of this technique, is a good example. Such a nozzle, which traditionally is
composed of 20 and has a very complex shape, is printed as a single piece. Moreover, such a nozzle is lighter than the
conventionally produced, so that the engine equipped with it consumes 10% less
fuel and produces 10% less emissions.
Fig. 4. A model of an old astronomical instrument,
astrolabium, with movable inner circles printed as one part. © H. Dodziuk
2.
Considerably lower costs associated
with the development and manufacturing of production tools, as compared to
conventional methods.
3. Avoiding loss of material typical of conventional methods such as, for example, machining. It has been proposed to use waste as the 'ink' for printing (waste1, waste2). However, 3D printing can have also undesirable environmental effects.
2.
Lower costs associated with the develpement and
manufacturing of production tools, as compare to traditional methods.
3.
Avoiding loss of material typical of conventional
methods such as, for example, machining. It has been proposed to use waste as
the 'ink' for printing (waste1, waste2). However, 3D printing can have also undesirable
environmental effects.
4.
Low cost and speed of prototype testing allowing for
fast corrections and improvements.
5.
Of numerous applications of 3D printing in various
areas, the most exciting seem to be those in medicine allowing for prostheses exactly matching the patient’s size (e. g., brain powered prosthetic arm, lower jaw, or cranial implants), bioprinting using
cells to speed up healing wounds
and printing organ tissues to evaluate toxicity of drugs. An exciting
proposal, already put into practice,
consists of using models of the patient’s brain or other organs, obtained on
the basis of MRI or other techniques, to allow surgeons to train for future operation.
Fig. 5. Prostheses for the African
war victims made by Not Impossible company. © Not Impossible.
6. So far, 3D printing
is cheaper, faster and more flexible than traditional production only for short
production runs. This may soon change with the rapid decline in the cost of 3D
printers and increase speed of the printing process.
7. The advantage of
the printers, which from the point of view of the social costs may prove to be
a disadvantage, is that they can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week depriving
workers of their jobs.
As illustrated
by several design projects, e.g. MATHART by
Disingof, programs for printing prostheses for amputees in Asia and Africa who
lost their limbs during the fratricidal wars (the Not Impossible
and 3D Life Prints projects),
3D printing not only stimulates imagination but also changes our world. 3D printing introduces several added values. As
mentioned earlier, the printed aircraft parts are lighter than those
manufactured using traditional methods and that 3D printing allows one to
produce individualized prostheses. Such additional advantages of 3D printing
are numerous. Some of them will be presented later.
Fig. 6. One of the fascinating MATHART Dizingof projects. © Dizingof
Industrial applications of 3D printers
Industrial applications of 3D printing are numerous.
At present, we are at the beginning of a rapid development of industrial
applications of this fabrication method, which will introduce significant
changes in industry and beyond. Displacement of workers by 3D printers was
mentioned above, but the societal changes will be much broader and are
difficult to grasp today. Few years ago the respected The Economist
published an article entitled „Print me a Stradivarius” with a photo of 3D
printed violin on the cover.
Listen
to music played on such an instrument on Violin. There are more than ten such links on the YouTube, and one of the
instrument has a fascinating shape strange violin. Another instrument of this kind was recently
presented by 3D Varius
company.
In
the article, the future influence of 3D printing on economy and everyday life
was compared to those of the impact of printing press, steam engine and
transistor. At present, a full effect of 3D printing cannot be estimated.
However, it is expected that it will bring significant changes in several areas and companies, enterpreneurs
and lawyers will be forced to adjust to them. Today we are at a fascinating
moment, when 3D printing, earlier applied to manufacturing of tools and
prototypes, enters mass production at General Electric, Ford, Siemens, Mattel, Airbus, and other companies. This process will certainly intensify.
Great
efforts are underway to develop less expensive, faster and more specialized 3D
printers and printing materials. We mentioned the fully 3D printed Strati car
above. Airbus’ efforts to develop gigantic 3D printers
for manufacturing airplane parts and GE studies of printing nozzles of jet
engines are few published examples that I could find. I am certain many more are
being developed in secret by various companies. However, recently a news was
published that the new Airbus A350 XWB contains more than 1000 3D printed parts.
3D
printing is expected also to revolutionize spare parts management.
Today repair shops store all spare parts needed, in the near future they will
have a 3D printer and files of the parts saving huge costs of the storage.
American army used 3D printers in Iraq and Aphganistan instead of bringing the
complete sets of spare parts there.
3D
printing is now a hot topic for many engineers, tinkerers, fans of DIY,
scientists, and even hackers. They develop new, cheaper and/or specialized printers
for numerous applications, novel materials for printing, as well as new,
exciting applications, including those in regenerative medicine, construction,
aerospace and space research, fashion, food industry to name but a few.
Fig. 7. Chocolate globes 3D printed by the TNO company. ©
TNO.
Free open-source software (FOSS), free open-source
hardware (FOSH), and self-replicating 3D printers
Everyone knows about open source software, such as Linux.
A new element in the development of 3D printing (and many other areas) is the
use of free
open-source hardware. This significantly expands the capabilities compared
with using only free software. On RepRap website, one can build a 3D printer, for example by
retrieving data from webpages, using Arduino or Raspberry Pi
microcontrollers and FOSS free software. One can also design and make 3D
printed laboratory instruments. This opens up completely new perspectives
difficult to grasp. Or example, Cronin’s group is building systems for carrying
out and monitoring chemical reactions yielding very interesting, sometimes
surprising results2. Some of them will be described below.
A flood of applications – something new every day
In the beginning of the twenty-first century,
engineers and designers began using 3D printers intensively to quickly and
inexpensively build tools and prototypes that are now widely used in various
industries. As mentioned earlier, the Strati car
has been recently 3D printed similarly to nozzles of next-generation jet
engines readied for production by GE. Multiple
applications of 3D printing are now increasingly being introduced in many
fields: architecture, medicine and dentistry, food, jewelry industry,
education, and many others, not only for prototyping, but also for medium-scale
production. Moreover, as I mentioned in the beginning, large corporations have
started programs for implementation of three-dimensional printer for mass
production. On the Internet one can find many interesting prototypes, such as printed motorcycle,
jewelry, bikini or fragment of Nike shoes. I saw printed in 3D bike at the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Krakow in the Polish-British Exhibition of Sustainable and small
prewar sculptures (printed in 3D on the basis of preserved drawings) by Polish
artist Janek Simon shown at the exhibition in the Polish Zachęta National Gallery.
Fig. 8. Copies of small prewar sculptures (3D printed on the
basis of preserved drawings) by Polish artist Janek Simon. © Zachęta Gallery
See also fascinating dresses and
shoes (in Polish). A corset shown at the 3D Printshow in
2015 in Berlin presented below (and the shoe shown in Fig. 3) is an example of an
attractive 3D printed dress.
Fig. 9. Corset designed and 3D printed by Michaella Jansen van Vuuren. ©
H. Dodziuk
Applications of 3D printing in medicine
The
most interesting applications of 3D printing are probably in the domain of
regenerative medicine, such as denture teeth or bones that exactly match patient's
body. For instance, an 83-year-old cancer patient with large changes in the
lower jaw received the 3D printed implant matching exactly her anatomy. Similarly, a seventeen
year old (at the time) American high school student Easton LaChappelle built a girl’s hand prosthesis, whose
movements were controlled by brainwaves since he felt sorry that the girl’s
parents could not afford the new, larger prosthesis for $ 80 000. The
prosthesis that Easton built costs less than $500. Surprisingly, this drew
attention of managers of the Dutch company Heineken for quite a different
purpose; they wanted to order 500 artificial arms to offer beer in pubs. Currently
Easton LaChappelle has a job at NASA on the Robonaut project. He has also
founded a company Unlimited Tomorrow, Inc. and seeks funding on Kickstarter for
his new, more functional prosthesis and on gofundme website for a new exoskeleton that he develops to help paraplegics
walk again.
Fig. 10. Hand prosthesis from the Open Bionics
company founded by Joel Gibbard. © H. Dodziuk
Numerous and very inexpensive limb prostheses
completely changed the situation on this market: instead of ca. $100 000
they can cost less than $1000. Their appearance also has changed dramatically;
kids and teenagers do not want their prostheses to mimic e. g. a hand, it
should be an attractive gadget instead.
Another example of 3D printed prosthesis is the artificial ear created jointly
by scientists and doctors from Cornell University. As the ‘ink’ for printing,
they used a gel, which consisted of live cells, collagen isolated from rat
tails and ear cartilage obtained from cows. In this case, the collagen was used
as a scaffold, on which the cartilage and cells were deposited. A full safety
inspection of the procedure used may take three years. It will then be possible
to use it for patients who lost all or part of the ear in an accident or as a
result of cancer or who suffer from congenital ear deformity called Microtia.
One of the greatest achievement in the area of the
applications of 3D printing in medicine are bioprinters
(also called organ printers or computer-aided tissue engineering devices)1. They will remove the limitations
or perhaps even eliminate the use of human donors in the future. Two years ago a patient cured
of cancer received a new face, a part of which was 3D printed.
Fig. 11. A patient cured from
cancer shows a face prosthesis, a part of which was 3D printed. © Geoff Pugh
There have also been reports of printing of liver tissue and artificial kidney. However, obtaining blood vessels in this way is much more difficult. Even present day modest printing capabilities of
human organs permit modeling of the patient's heart to make a model using
medical equipment of appropriate size so that it can be used for the operation
on a specific person, for instance a baby or even a fetus in the womb.
Similarly, as mentioned above surgeons practice complicated operations on 3D
printed models, e.g. of of kidney (in Polish). New stunning three-dimensional
printing applications in medicine appear almost daily.
3D
printing can also be used in synthesis and testing of drugs. Chemical synthesis
of various substances including drugs using 3D printing was reported by Dr. Lee
Cronin group whose work will be discussed below2. As concerns testing, Dr. Anthony Atala is a leading specialist in bioprinting, i.e. in 3D printing of layers of cells
with artificial scaffolding1. This method allows one to obtain miniaturized and
simplified versions of human organs, which can be placed on a chip and supplied
with a blood substitute. Such models of human bodies could also be used to
study human response to new drugs as well as to dangerous diseases or chemical
warfare agents such as sarin gas. Researchers may be able to avoid in this way
animal studies or experiments on human cells. The first such lab-on-chip device consisting of a liver assay for drug
testing has been recently approved by American Food and Drug Administration
after impressive testing that showed toxicity not only to known toxic drugs but
also of the drugs that were first accepted for use and then removed from the
market in view of the earlier undetected toxicity.
One
of the most recent inventions, in use of 3D printing in medicine is a "biopen", i.e.
“a pen” that accurately applies cells on a wound leading to a much more rapid
regeneration of tissue.
Applications
of 3D printing in research will be presented only briefly. Recently Dr. Gabriel
Villard and his colleagues from the University of Oxford obtained 3D printed
tissue, allowing them to obtain an artificial model of the intercell
communication. This is a
significant improvement over the existing cell models, where
intercellular cooperation is
impossible. Interestingly, some
of the objects created by Villar
et al. change
their shapes after being printed.
A similar phenomenon was observed
later and called 4D printing, adding time
as the fourth
dimension. Villar Group
has also developed a method that allows the introduction of new natural
or synthetic biomaterials into living
cells. This in turn would allow
the study of completely new
phenomena.
The
work of Dr. Lee Cronin and colleagues from the University of Glasgow in the
field of chemical synthesis using 3D printing2 attracted great
interest. They have developed and built equipment to perform chemical reactions
and analyze the products obtained using this method of preparation. These
researchers have received in their sets new organic and inorganic chemicals and
proved their structures also using these kits. According to Dr. Cronin
"This approach is inexpensive, automated and modifiable chemical platform,
which allows the use of methods of chemical engineering at the typical
synthetic laboratories." Then experimenting with 3D printing Cronin group
created within a few hours (using inexpensive materials) a number of reliable
and durable miniaturized liquid reactors for chemical synthesis. Unfortunately,
these scientists are also examining the possibility of printing medications (currently
ibuprofen), which for obvious reasons are interesting not only for
pharmaceutical companies or the generals of NATO. It seems that Dr. Cronin
definitely does not take into account the legal, medical and practical problems
associated with these studies. He says he cannot imagine the gangsters 3D printing
drugs. Being aware of the serious problems of counterfeiting of drugs and the
abuse of common medicines without control (problems of addiction), I consider
the views of Dr. Cronin as naive and its activity in this field irresponsible.
However, I must admit that American FDA has recently approved the
first 3D printed drug.
Fig. 12. 3D printed models of crystal structures and molecules3.
What is new in 3D printing?
Almost daily there are new and exciting developments in
3D printing. As mentioned above, 3D printing applications expand rapidly. The
technique was used first for making
tools and prototypes, and now they enter into production on a large scale by major
corporations such as GE, Ford, Mattel, Airbus, Lockheed Martin or many emerging companies such as korecologic. Srinivasan and Bassan already in 2012, claimed that "There are good chances that you
already flew the plane, not knowing that it was built using some 3D printed
parts, which were lighter and used less fuel."
For
several years, work has been underway on the use of 3D printing in
construction. Behrokh Khoshnevis from the University of Southern
California built in his company the
Contour Crafting Contour Crafting printer,
with which you can build a house with an area of over 200 m2 in 24
hours with all the cables and pipes incorporated during printing. The
Netherland Canal House Project
has to be mentioned, too. Recently, an announcement came out of China that, as
an experiment, they built 10 houses using the waste materials. Although most of the
building projects are in development, you can buy today a 3D printer that will
print a house za 12 000 dolarów amerykańskich.
Increasingly
complex and inexpensive implants and prostheses are being developed and chances are that 3D printing may
one day reduce or even eliminate the shortage of organs available for
transplantation by creation of organs aimed precisely at the patient needs. As mentioned before, an
important factor
is the drastic fall in prices
of prostheses. We should mention here
also special programs (Not Impossible,
3D Life Prints) devoted to producing printed
in 3D prostheses for
the victims of the wars in Africa
(Fig. 5) and Asia.
Of
course, the use of 3D printers will be accompanied by product differentiation
tailored to a specific customer. This tendency is well illustrated by the small
gadget, personalized Iphone case, showing exactly how the production of the
product according to customer requirements provides innovative companies a
competitive advantage. Among others, the most important manifestations of
adaptations to the client (patient) are individualized medical applications
discussed previously, such as prosthetic arm controlled by brain waves and
facial prosthesis partially printed in 3D (Fig. 11). One can challenge some of Alvin Toffler forecasts expressed in his visionary
"Future shock", but his announcement of the era of personalized
products fits well with the trends in 3D printing4.
Using
a specialized 3D printer, the Stratasys company produced multilayer fabric
consisting of a standard plastic fibers separated by layers of "smart materials". This fabric has been able to
absorb water, allowing it to spread to the whole structure that can be bent or twisted by
another intelligent layer. This new concept allows for experimentation with
materials, energy sources and the design details of devices thus enabling new
applications.
Thanks
to the steep decline in prices and to much better software as well as
development of specific printers and materials for printing, 3D printing develops
rapidly. Both professional and amateur designers have greater access to
printers, significantly expanding their capabilities. They are able to print
their three-dimensional object already in the design phase, modify it and
re-print, which will accelerate the pace of innovation.
A
year ago, it was expected that 3D printing workshops will soon appear
everywhere. Today such printers are gradually introduced into schools where
they trigger creativity and imagination of young users. The shops and workshops
pop up everywhere. The elegant London department store, Selfridges, opened a
stand with 3D printing in October 2013. The supermarket Albert Hejin
in Eindhoven, Holland, has launched an
experimental stand printing
sweets, which enjoyed such
great success that now it operates permanently.
Fig. 14. 3D printed cakes by the Zmorph company. © Zmorph.
The
combination of new materials and printed electronics at the nanoscale is
expected to create new products with properties previously unimaginable
liberating creativity of engineers and designers. On the other hand, the ease
of copying such objects will ignite vigorous debate on Intellectual Property
Rights. The controversies will be similar to those initiated 10 years ago by
websites sharing files, such as FilesTube and Shared allowing copying and
sharing of music.
More than 3D: time as the the
fourth dimension
Mr. Jourdain of Molier’s play
"The Bourgeois Gentleman" did not know that he spoke in prose.
Similarly Dr. Gabriel Villar and his colleagues, whose work we discussed above,
did not know that their 3D printed objects changing shape in time, are examples
of four-dimensional printing. Just as in the theory of relativity, time is the
fourth dimension in addition to the three spatial ones. Dr. Skylar Tibbits from the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT took
advantage of the power of self-promotion and presented 4D printing at the 2013
TED conference in Los Angeles, the United States, although the same phenomenon that
has been observed and proposed for use earlier by Dr. Villar and coworkers went unnoticed. The application of
4D printing will take time, but it will create new opportunities, e.g. in the case of objects in hard to
reach places such as underground water pipes. It might be possible to
significantly expand or reduce the water flow thus avoiding excavation
necessary to replace the pipes. Other proposed applications of 4D printing are
self-organizing furniture, vehicles, and even buildings. It is anticipated that
4D printed objects will be used for performing repairs in places that are hard
to reach or dangerous for humans such as in nuclear reactors or space stations.
On the other hand, I do not understand why 4D printing is to be used for
furniture production.
What next?
The price of a printer depends, of course, on a
specific printer, its purpose and the quality of output. However, with
ever-falling prices (from US $ 1,000 at the beginning of 2013, and now down to US
$ 100 for a DIY printer kit) on the one hand, and the availability of easy to assemble
RepRap printers, and the like on the other, 3D printing becomes available for
almost everyone. Availability of 3D printers is gaining momentum: the printers
become available in schools (China plans to introduce printers into the
elementary schools), shopping centers, or simply in the streets (see, for
example, the Kiosk project).
As
we mentioned above, the 3D printing applications are migrating from prototypes
and small-scale printing to large commercial applications. Recently, we have
learned that a new Airbus A350 XWB airplane contains more
than 1000 3D printed parts. Several companies (GE, Airbus and Lockheed-Martin among other) are
investigating the possibility of building much larger aircraft components using
giant 3D printers. In addition to the reduction or elimination of waste,
reducing fuel consumption in cars and airplanes, 3D printed parts will also
affect the environment, resulting in, among others, lower exhaust emissions. On
the other hand, some people are warning that the ease of printing may result in
impulsive and ostentatious consumption.
In
the near future a solar powered open-source 3D printer will soon appear. The printer with
such power supply was used by Markus Kayser
to make glass (that perhaps due to the appearance would be called ceramic)
vessels in the desert.
Fig. 15. Solar Sinter project by Markus Kayser: the 3D printer powered
by solar panels (left) and the printed dishes (right)
Printing
food: NASA invested $ 125,000 in a project to develop a 3D printer that will
print pizza. Recently, two companies launched professional 3D food
printers named Foodini and ChefJet and ChefJet Pro, for manufacturing chocolates and sweets. However,
the food that can be printed may be hard to swallow, although the idea has strong support in some quarters.
Pot-pourri of ideas
Creativity
knows no bounds. If you want to have a three-dimensional model of your unborn
child, the Japanese company Fasotec will print it for you. Building that mimics
the Möbius strip has been proposed. In the US, a start-up Modern Meadow has been founded aiming
at production of raw meat with bioink containing different types of organic
cells. One of the best-known Silicon Valley investors Peter Thiel, co-founder of
PayPal and early investor in Facebook supports this endevour. Recently, a humanoid 3D printed robot and drone (you can print for yourself) have been reported. There
is no end to new ideas.
What about printing your own drugs or weapons?
Not all perspectives of 3D printing are acceptable. We
already mentioned the controversial idea of Cronin of printing drugs at home. The possibility of
using 3D printing to produce weapons and missiles is scary (“The gun lobby,
which is supporting the ownership of fire arms, loves 3D printing”). Plans for
printing a machine gun have been removed from the Internet at the request of US
authorities. On the other hand, as shown by Wozniak et al. of Jagiellonian University in Poland, one can
use the 3D printing to identify weapons
used in commission of crime5.
Social changes
In the article "The consequences of 3D
printing" Mary Gehl says that "the extraordinary possibilities of
general household use of this technology have great potential to change the way
in which the goods are manufactured, designed and innovated." The
accompanying changes will affect not only the economy. Legal basis and sociological
consequences may be similarly - but much deeply – affected as the changes introduced by the digital formats
in the music industry since the ability
to easily copy objects may violate all
key areas of intellectual property rights, such as copyright protection of
industrial designs, patents and trademarks.
We
should also expect profound social change. In the first half of the twentieth
century in advanced economies which are
characterized by a large scale of production, consumption and standardized
products, consumer society has been created. The produced goods could be
purchased by workers who themselves become consumers. Henry Ford's black
Model T was one of such products.
Now modern society has evolved and “has given way in the
21st century to a paradigm characterized by small-batch production, economies
of scope, specialized products, new information technologies, reliance on
service jobs, and an emphasis on types of consumers rather than on social
class.” This conforms
to trends introduced by 3D printers making our economy more flexible and
changing many of our contemporary social and economic relations on the global
scale. Society moves from the world of passive buyers to one in which production
and consumption are continuous and symbiotic. Consumerism changes into prosumerism,
in which production and use of objects will not be separated, for example, when
people will produce parts to repair
their washing machine or
refrigerator, or make a necklace. We
will deal with a such situation when homeowners with solar panels sell their
surplus of generated electricity. In general, different effects of 3D printing
and social change it is expected to bring
are difficult to overestimate.
Fig. 16. Paul McCartney and other printed objects in Aye Aye Labs. © J. Tomala
The outlook
The impact of 3D printing technology on everyday life will be huge. In the
"The Economist" article
mentioned above, the future consequences of 3D printing were
compared to the industrial revolution associated with the invention of the
steam engine, the printing press and the transistor. According to Mary Gehl, 3D printing is developing very rapidly and will
reach a turnover of US$ 3.1 billion in 2016 and US$ 5.2 billion in 2020.
Decreasing prices of 3D printers will be accompanied not only by the development
of the industry but also by the "explosion of 3D printing at home ."
One of the 3D printing gurus, Terry Wohlers of Wohlers Associates in Fort
Collins, Colorado, USA, predicts that this technology available first to such
diverse user groups as students, scientists, DIY enthusiasts, hobbyists,
inventors and entrepreneurs, will become an important driver for the rapid
development of 3D printing.
Fig. 17. Gigantic 3D
printer BigRap at 3D Printshow 2015 in Berlin. © H. Dodziuk
And what is happening in this domain in Poland?
We
do quite a bit. A number of companies producing 3D printers and/or offering the
printing services have sprung up in several Polish cities and are taking part
in specialized conferences and trade fair meetings in Poland and abroad. There
are even specialized conferences. There are numerous internet shops selling the
printers and a Zortrax store in Cracow while the Zmorph company from Wrocław
opened its first showroom in Haarlem in the Netherlands. Leroy Merlin introduces 3D printing workshops in its
supermarket chain. A 3D printer by the Polish company Jelwek was advertised
last year as a Christmas gift. The company also created an elegant watch with
3D printed casing and bracelet marketed on their webpage http://jelwek.pl/pl/akcesoria/90-jelwek-watch.html for about US $80.
Fig. 18. 3D printed Watches by the Jelwek company. © Jelwek.
The
greatest recognition in Poland and
abroad, was received by the Zortrax company, that sold 5000 printers developed
in Poland, but produced in China and Hong Kong, to the Dell corporation.
Zortrax raised the capital for development on the crowd-sourcing Kickstarter
platform, which also introduced Zortrax to Dell. Zortrax M200 printer shown in
Fig. 1 won the first place out
of 400 printers rated by users of 3DHubs
community.
The
most interesting applications of 3D printing in Poland include regenerative
medicine. The first in Poland Laboratory of Individual Medical Implants in Łódź performed
at least three operations in which the 3D printed portions of the skull were
implanted. Surgeons from the Department of Maxillofacial and Plastic Surgery at
the University Hospital in Białystok printed the parts of the mandible removed
during surgery of 78-year-old cancer patient and doctors at the Military Naval
Hospital in Gdansk carried out ENT (otolaryngological) operation previously
rehearsed on the printed model.
To Summarize
Almost every day we are literally “bombarded” with information
on new 3D printers, printing materials and application of 3D printing and the
beauty of many projects and their effectiveness is captivating. It is not
possible to foresee all economical and societal changes it will bring. However,
it is clear they will influence all our lives.
References
(1) Murphy, S.; Atala, A. Nature Biotech. 2014, 32, 773.
(3) Chen,
T.-H.; Lee, S.; Flood, A. H.; Miljanic, O. S. CrystEngComm 2014, 16, 5488.
(4) Toffler,
A. Future shock; Random House, 1970.