3-D Printers

3-D Printers Redefine Industrial Design
Article by: Bryan Gardiner

I came across this article on Geekipedia, I had never heard of a 3-D Printer before so I thought I would do a little investigating. After reading the article I’ve decided I want one for myself, although I won’t be able to afford one anytime soon because they are rather pricey. For anyone who was like me and didn’t know about 3-D printers I’ll give a little description.
So basically a 3-D printer prints out models in 3-D. There are various kinds of 3-D printers that are capable of printing different materials. The feature printer that was discussed in the article is a printer from Frog Design; it is used for more traditional modeling purposes. The printer uses two materials: ABS (acryolintrile butadiene styrene) plastic and industrial-strength glue. The glue is what enables the machine to build hollow or concave objects without letting them collapse in on themselves. An example of using a 3-D printer in product design would be for the use of creating personal hearing aids;
“They stick some clay in your ear, it takes the shape of your ear, then they 3-D laser scan that and it gets fabricated by a 3-D printer, it’s kind of co-designed by your ear, by your personal geometry.”
Evolving technology has even generated 3-D printers that are capable of printing out fully functional finished products. In fact, battleships and aircraft carriers now make extensive us of selective laser sintering (SLS) printers. These printers are capable of “printing out” materials like titanium, cobalt chromium and polyamide. They actually use these printers to fabricate spare parts on the spot instead of carrying huge warehouses full of replacements.
3-D printers are a really great tool that can speed up production time, ultimately cutting costs for all sorts of products. My personal experience with creating 3-D projects is that for one I usually end up wasting a lot of material. I’ll come up with ideas in my head and decide upon materials, but often while I’m building the structure I come across technical problems with the design. By using a 3-D printer you can eliminate many of these problems before final production.
The craziest concept that I read about was that some manufacturers of 3-D printers even use their own products to create parts for the next generation of printers. In a way I think it’s a little scary that machines are able to build other machine. Although this fear could have to do with the fact that I watched the movie i-Robot last night. Convenience and efficiency are goals people strive to accomplish while creating new technology; the end result is easy living.