Introduction to 3D Printing

Introduction to 3D Printing                                                                             

 Definition
3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three-dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material. It is also known as rapid prototyping, which is a mechanized method whereby 3D objects are quickly made on a reasonably sized machine connected to a computer containing blueprints for the object. The 3D printing concept of custom manufacturing is exciting to nearly everyone. This revolutionary method for creating 3D models with the use of inkjet technology saves time and cost by eliminating the need to design, print, and glue together separate model parts.

 Typical 3D Printer
3D printers are machines that produce physical 3D models from digital data by printing layer by layer. It can make physical models of objects either designed with a CAD program or scanned with a 3D scanner. It is used in a variety of industries, including jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction, automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, and consumer products.

 History
The 1980s: Birth of the 3 Main 3D Printing Techniques
The first 3D printing attempts are granted to Dr. Kodama for his development of a rapid prototyping technique in 1980. He was the first to describe a layer-by-layer approach for manufacturing, creating an ancestor for SLA: a photosensitive resin was polymerized by UV light. Unfortunately, he did not file the patent requirement before the deadline. Four years later, a French team of engineers was interested in the stereolithography but abandoned it due to a lack of business perspective. At the same time, Charles Hull was also interested in the technology and deposited a first patent for stereolithography (SLA) in 1986. He founded the 3D Systems Corporation and a year later, released the SLA-1. In 1988, at the University of Texas, Carl Deckard brought a patent for the SLS technology, another 3D printing technique in which powder grains are fused together locally by a laser. In the meantime, Scott Crump, a co-founder of Stratasys Inc., filed a patent for Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), the third of the main 3D printing technologies, in which In less than ten years, the three main technologies of 3D printing were patented, and 3D printing was born!

Recap: 1980: first patent by Japanese Dr Kodama Rapid prototyping 1984: Stereolithography by French then abandoned 1986: Stereolithography taken up by Charles Hull 1987: First SLA-1 machine 1988: first SLS machine by DTM Inc then buy by 3D system

The 1990s: Emergence of the Main 3D Printer Manufacturers & CAD Tools
In Europe, EOS GmbH was founded and created the first EOS “Stereos” system for industrial prototyping and production applications of 3D printing. Its industrial quality is today recognized worldwide in SLS technology for plastics and metals. In 1992, the Fused Deposition Modeling patent was issued to Stratasys, who developed many 3D printers for both professionals and individuals. From 1993 to 1999, the main actors of the 3D printing sector emerged with various techniques:
 ZCorp and binder jetting: Based on MIT’s inkjet printing technology, they created the Z402, which produced models using starch- and plaster‐based powder materials and a water‐based liquid binder.
- Arcam MCP technology and selective laser melting.
At the same time, CAD tools for 3D printing became more and more available and developed, with, for example, the creation of Sanders Prototype (now known as Solidscape), one of the first actors to develop specific tools for additive manufacturing. The 1990s were also the decade of the first application of 3D printing by medical researchers, who started to combine medicine and 3D printing, opening the path to many uses.

 

The 2000s: 3D Printing Explodes
In 2000, the millennium saw the first 3D-printed working kidney. We will have to wait 13 more years to see it transplanted into a patient. 3D-printed kidneys are now perfectly working, and researchers are experimenting on accelerated growth to transplant organs very rapidly. 2004 was the year of the initiation of the RepRap Project, which consists of a self-replicating 3D printer. This open-source project led to the spreading of the FDM 3D desktop 3D printers and of the popularity of the technology in the makers community. In 2005, ZCorp launched the Spectrum Z510, the very first high-definition color 3D printer. In 2008, 3D printing reached an even greater media presence thanks to another medical application: the first 3D-printed prosthetic limb. It incorporated all parts of a biological limb and was printed ‘as is,’ without the need for any later assembly. Nowadays, combined with 3D scanning, medical prostheses and orthoses are cheaper and extremely fast to obtain. 2009 was the year in which the FDM patents fell into the public domain, opening the way to a wide wave of innovation in FDM 3D printers, a drop in the desktop 3D printer price, and consequently, since the technology was more accessible, increased visibility. 2009 was also the year Sculpteo was created, one of the pioneers of the now flourishing online 3D printing services, another step toward 3D printing accessibility.

 

The 2010s: Years of Visibility and Innovation
The recent years have been very important for 3D printing. With the FDM patent expiration, the first years of the decade have become the years of 3D printing. The desktop technology invaded the market and made the industrial sector rethink additive manufacturing as a reliable production technique. The revolutionary additive manufacturing could bring in common consumption was written about extensively, and even though this total shift of consumption habits hasn’t happened yet, 3D printing is getting into common imaginations and practices. In 2013, President Barack Obama mentioned 3D printing as a major issue for the future in his State of the Union speech, which finished to make “3D printing” an absolute buzzword. It is now very present in the general public’s mind and in policymakers’ decisions. The technology is forever progressing, just as are the uses of this technology. More and more small and big companies take advantage of the low prototyping price that 3D printing offers and have fully integrated it into their iteration, innovation, and production processes. In 2010, Urbee was the first 3D-printed prototype car. Its body was fully 3D printed using a very large 3D printer. Now, the 3D-printed car is much more a dream than a reality, but in the manufacturing process, many actors are considering it as a good alternative to traditional methods. In 2011, Cornell University began to build a 3D food printer. At first sight, it could seem slightly trivial, but NASA is now researching how astronauts could 3D print food in space. In 2012, doctors and engineers in the Netherlands used a 3D printer made by LayerWise to print a customized three-dimensional prosthetic lower jaw, which is subsequently implanted into an 83-year-old woman suffering from a chronic bone infection. This technology is currently being explored to promote the growth of new bone tissue. In 2014, NASA brought a 3D printer in space to make the first 3D-printed object off of the earth.
Many medical 3D printing advances: tissues, organs, and low-cost prostheses.
New 3D printers are being issued regularly; they are more efficient, they print faster, they give access to new 3D printing materials, and… A good example is the Carbon 3D CLIP technology, which we have offered as a service on our platform since March 2016 and which 3D prints strong mechanical resins at an unequaled speed. New 3D printing materials are being explored every day, from Daniel Kelly’s lab, which is 3D printing bone, to the French startup XtreeE, which is 3D printing concrete to revolutionize the construction industry! At the same time, efforts are constantly made to make 3D printing more accessible through education (see our eBook on how to graduate in 3D printing), shared spaces like fab labs and maker spaces, and, of course, 3D printing services like ours: we’re constantly adding new materials to our catalogue, new repair and optimization tools to make sure you 3D print exactly what you had in mind, and new eBooks and tutorials so you master the technology from design to finish

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Future of 3D printing
3D printing probably won't replace many of the usual assembly-line methods for building standard products. Instead, the technology offers the advantage of making individual, specifically tailored parts on demand — something more suited to creating specialized parts for U.S. military aircraft rather than making thousands of trash cans for sale at Wal-Mart. Boeing has already used 3D printing to make more than 22,000 parts used on civilian and military aircraft flying today.

The medical industry has also taken advantage of 3D printing's ability to make unique objects that might otherwise be tough to build using traditional methods. U.S. surgeons implanted a 3D-printed skull piece to replace 75 percent of a patient's skull during an operation in March 2013. Researchers also built a 3D-printed ear mold that served as the framework for a bioengineered ear with living cells. The spread of 3D printing technology around the world could also shrink geographical distances for both homeowners and businesses. Online marketplaces already allow individuals to upload 3D-printable designs for objects and sell them anywhere in the world. Rather than pay hefty shipping fees and import taxes, sellers can simply arrange for a sold product to be printed at whatever 3D printing facility is closest to the buyer. Such 3D printing services may not be limited to specialty shops or companies in the near future. Staples stores plan to offer 3D printing services in the Netherlands and Belgium starting in 2013. Businesses won't be alone in benefiting from 3D printing's print-on-demand-anywhere capability. The U.S. military has deployed 3D printing labs to Afghanistan as a way to speed up the pace of battlefield innovation and rapidly build whatever soldiers might need onsite. NASA has looked into 3D printing for making replacement parts aboard the International Space Station and building spacecraft in orbit. Most 3D printers don't go beyond the size of household appliances such as refrigerators, but 3D printing could even scale up in size to build objects as big as a house. A separate NASA project has investigated the possibility of building lunar bases for future astronauts by using moon "dirt" known as regolith.

 

 

Limitations of 3D printing 

But 3D printing still has its limits. Most 3D printers can only print objects using a specific type of material—a serious limitation that prevents 3D printers from creating complex objects such as an Apple iPhone. Yet researchers and commercial companies have begun developing workarounds. Optomec, a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has already made a 3D printer capable of printing electronic circuitry onto objects.
A .22 pistol assembled using a 3D-printed receiver part. The 3D printing boom could eventually prove disruptive in both a positive and negative sense. For instance, the ability to easily share digital blueprints online and print out the objects at home has proven a huge boon for do-it-yourself makers.
But security experts worry about 3D printing's ability to magnify the effects of digital piracy and the sharing of knowledge that could prove dangerous in the