20 Things You Didn't Know About... 3-D
Printing
3-D printing is all the hype these days, but
there's a lot about the technology that you don't know.
By Christian Millman in Discover Magazine
1. We’ve heard so much hype about the wonder of
3-D printers, but they aren’t really printers at all. They’re “additive
manufacturers” more akin to Star Trek’s replicators, building incredibly
complex three-dimensional objects by spraying materials in successive layers
through special nozzles.
2. Unlike Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, you can’t yet
order “tea, Earl Grey, hot,” but several foodstuffs are already in testing,
including scallops, cookies and burritos.
3. Mmmmm, burritos. Thingiverse, an online
community for sharing 3-D designs, has dozens of templates for print-at-home
bongs, bubblers and other items that elicit the munchies.
4. From spaced-out to space itself: NASA is
sending a 3-D printer to the International Space Station so its crew can build
spare parts — a far cry from the 1970 Apollo 13 misadventure when that crew
stayed alive by MacGyvering a carbon dioxide filter using duct tape, cardboard
and a plastic bag.
5. Speaking of MacGyver, the TV
character hated guns, hence his reliance on a pocketknife as sharp as his wits.
He would have been dismayed to learn about the The Liberator — a plastic,
single-shot pistol made on a 3-D printer — which easily gets past metal
detectors.
6. Should you prefer making love, not war, the
following will help: The sex toy industry has embraced 3-D printing with such
gems as a toy shaped like Justin Bieber. Don’t ask.
7. It’s not only Beliebers rejoicing in their
heroic figures. Engineers at Loughborough University in the U.K. used a 3-D
printer to rebuild the skeleton of King Richard III.
8. Even more exciting than entire skeletons are
individual bones. Replacement jawbones and hips are among the medical uses of
3-D printing.
9. Fitting, considering the fumes from 3-D
printers may necessitate a new set of lungs. Research in the journal Atmospheric
Environment shows many desktop 3-D printers produce emissions linked to
health issues ranging from asthma attacks to strokes.
10. Some emissions come from certain plastics
used as printer feedstock. But 3-D printers can use many other base materials:
metal alloys, paper and even soil.
11. Not bad for technology that can cost as
little as $300.
12. Or you can buy a printer
to make your printer. The RepRap Mendel 3-D printer can build about 50 percent
of itself and counting. Can anyone say The Matrix?
13. If this is starting to freak your mind,
you’re in good company. President Barack Obama devoted some of his 2013 State
of the Union address to the technology, saying it has “the potential to
revolutionize the way we make almost everything.”
14. Perhaps Obama got inspired after the White
House viewing of the James Bond movie Skyfall. The Aston Martin DB5 that
Bond appeared to drive was one of three models created using a 3-D printer.
15. Those DB5s were models. The URBEE isn’t:
This hybrid car in development by Kor Ecologic aims to reach over 200 mpg on
the highway. The car’s entire interior and exterior will be made with a 3-D
printer.
16. First a car, then a house. Researchers at
MIT have developed a 3-D material modeled after bone — denser on the outside
than the inside, and seriously strong. It could be the next big thing in
framing buildings.
17. The very small has its appeal, too.
Northwestern University researchers are using low-cost desktop printers in
nanofabrication. Several pint-size projects are in development, including gene
chips, protein arrays, stem cell controls and electronic circuits.
18. There’s also cause for old-school audiophiles
to party hard. An engineer at the project-sharing site Instructables has
figured out how to convert digital music files into vinyl-like LPs.
19. Old wax must also be on the minds of
artists at Madame Tussauds. It takes up to six months for a team of artists to
create one of the wax figures. Yet a solo American 3-D designer, Dan Roarty,
recently created a lifelike, printable 3-D model based on his belated
grandmother in a third of the time.
20. If you’d like to extend the
believe-it-or-not family portrait theme, you can order a 3-D model of your
unborn baby. Several new fetal Fotomats specialize in turning sonograms into
sculptures, lending new meaning to the term “prenatal development.”
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