3d printing, Main Features, Benefits and Future
3D Printing: The Future is Now
In order to create something, you must first have three basic elements: a basic idea of what you need, the means of making that idea happen, and lastly, the finished product. This concept was found to be relatively simple for firms and small companies to apply and reach a finished product, though it wasn’t the case for material objects. In the early 2000’s, software tycoons began appearing all over the map as small companies realized that this was a fast and efficient way of generating revenue with a finished creation; how software required no physical production and could easily be distributed through the Internet. But as the wave of entrepreneurs arrived, it soon vanished as the real demand was in material objects market.
Since the mid 1980’s, 3D printers have made their existence known as they’ve been able to facilitate the production of small-scale solid objects. At the time, the primitive state of the technology wasn’t of much use as they were the size of huge cabinets, comparable to what computers were at the time, and it took dedicated rooms with a handful of staff to run these machines. Fast-forward to present day and we can see they have made their debut appearance once again starting in 2009 (Clay). As technology progressed, so did 3D printers. Their range of applications today are endless, from medical uses to more commercial ones like a detailed model of the foot or a cellphone case. Going back to the demand of material objects, companies like 3D Systems, Stratasys, and Hewelett-Packard have already jumped back into development of the next generation of 3D printing technology, paving the way for an end-product.
Purpose
In the field of technology, creations that have the potential to change the world appear almost monthly. It’s up for the market to weed out the ones it sees fit and the ones that are obsolete. On occasion though, the market oversees some mistakes and products that appear at the right time often fade away. It’s ultimately up to the end-user to be the one responsible to accept or reject new technology, but not before being informed about it. How many times have you seen a commercial for a new gadget that you thought was useless at the time? But that you ended up buying and now use daily?
The technology was revolutionary for its time, though, it was very hard to use and didn’t seem as practical. With new advancement in the field, such as PolyJet, multi-material color printing, and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), 3D printers are now equipped to meet our demands as the necessary tools for small-scale production (PolyJet Technology). With this, now the possibilities for its applications are endless, and since it comeback in 2009-2010, there has been countless objects previous unable to be “printed” that are now able to do so, such as a working gun, acoustic guitar, shoes, and even fabrics. These are only some of the objects that have been developed within the past five years by a handful of companies. With enough R&D, this device has the potential to revolutionize the world. Along with mass production, 3D printers could be found at the homes of individuals within the next couple of years.
A machine that is single-handedly able to cut the middleman out of the production of goods sounds crazy, but that’s exactly what a 3D printer is. This is a machine that would allow entrepreneurs to produce a prototype or even an end-product of their idea, for simple things like syringes to be produced without a fear of not enough stock in an emergency situation, or even to take it as far as space travel and reduce the amount of unnecessary transportation of simple items when they can be “printed” right in zero gravity.
Even with liability issues, high costs and other issues that plague the still-developing machine, 3D printers are the next step into the future of manufacturing and that’s why there needs to be more funding, dedicated research, source development and UI improvement done for the future to arrive at our hands.
Methods
The way I’ll conduct my research is as follows: I will mainly refer to three different online articles, one of them being from a newspaper, one from a University publication and the other found on a professional journal. The first one has been published by The Washington Post, a world-renowned newspaper, the second, written by the Stanford Report, a news outlet for Stanford University, and the third has been published in the Journal of Assembly Automation, on the topic of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. Besides the main three, I will also conduct a survey of my college peers to get an idea of how many of them would purchase a 3D printer if the cost were right along with its outcome possibilities.
The piece found on The Washington Post titled “The 3D printing revolution might be Lego’s biggest test ever” will be beneficial to my research as it focuses specifically on the how Lego, a plastic toy manufacturer, can benefit from this machine. While the article also points out how Lego could be hurt by the emerging technology, it balances out the pros and cons in a way that it sheds light on how the manufacturing field could be improved, rather than be attacked. One of the tasks 3D printers do best is to compose small pieces of plastic, Lego’s main business. The company plans to integrate future products with 3D printers such as that once they’re available at a mass production level, they might not sell the finished product, rather sell the instructions or code for an individual to print their own set of pieces at home. Another way to approach this would be to require each set to have a piece especially “printed”, thus not only integrating the technology but making it a necessity. The article also points out how this might also be able to diversify their product line, allowing customers to print their own legos and incorporate them however they please. The main concept that this article will help me understand is how companies will use the emerging machine to their advantage and how this will help big and small businesses alike.
The second source to be used in my research will be an article written by the Stanford Report, of Stanford University. “3-D printing creates murky product liability issues, Stanford scholar says” points out a huge issue that could plague the machine with its future integration into a mass market, and that is liability issues. One aspect of how 3D printers improve commerce would be to bring the gap of small entrepreneurs closer together with the means of producing and manufacturing their own goods. It’s that same idea that creates legal issues. “Under current “strict liability” product law, a person who is injured by a defective product can win a lawsuit without necessarily showing that the maker or distributor of the product was negligent” (Parker). For example, if you were to buy a perishable product from the supermarket and fell ill because of said product, you would be able to sue the market even if they kept with all the rules and regulations simply because of you becoming ill. Things would be different with 3D printed products. “A person injured by a home-printed product would likely only be left with a negligence-based lawsuit. Negligence focuses on proving that the manufacturer, distributor or seller of the product was careless – a higher hurdle” (Parker). If you were to start a small bracelet business and sold a defective bracelet that hurt one of your customers, the customer wouldn’t be able to sue because of the harm done, but because of negligence, something much harder to prove in the court of law. As a manufacturer, this would be good, but as you place yourself in the shoes of a consumer, not so much. This article aids to view all the different negative aspects of the technology as well as all the hurdles holding it back. As I go into deeper research, I will be able to branch out into a selective group of legal and non-legal issues that plague the machine.
Lastly, my third core source can be found in the Journal of Assembly Automation, Volume 33 issue 4, under the subject area of Mechanical & Materials Engineering. “3D printing: the dawn of a new era in manufacturing?” discusses the introduction of 3D printers into their market, new technologies that have been adapted, evolving applications and it gives a glimpse into the future of where this is headed. This article serves as a panoramic view of how the machine functions, what it’s currently capable off, the diversity of its uses and its overall structure. It touches on its comeback since 2009 and how much it has evolved since then, explaining that results in such small amount of time can predict exponential results in the future. This article will help me elaborate, yet simplify, the importance of a 3D printer in everyday life and what that means for everyday individuals.
Implications
What’s most interesting about this product, is its future applications in an industrial scale. With further constant research and development, this product has the potential to facilitate work at every level, ranging from children making their own creative toys, to replicating skull fragments in the medicine field. From its wide range of uses and applications, 3D printing has the certain advantage of being able to create simple or complex models of objects, cutting costs and most importantly, reducing wait time for a final product. What does this mean for you and me? With enough funding and continuous research and development of companies like 3D Systems and Stratasys, along with the collaboration of the end-user programmer and designer, we might be able to “print” things in the comfort of our own home at a fast and efficient way, reducing the cost of the final product as well as the time component it takes to get it.
With a machine like this, how easy would it have been for Thomas Edison to create a tangible prototype of the light bulb? Even a nonworking one, he would’ve been able to project his thoughts and ideas into real, concrete objects, without the cost and time consumption of creating a working prototype. The same struggles apply to today’s engineers and designers. With the right tool, innovation doesn’t have to require work. That’s the power that a 3D printer holds.
