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Iliya Papoulias
3D printing has many uses that are beneficial for hobbyists as well as in industrial or commercial uses. This article will explain about the awesome uses of 3D printing for consumers and the innovative uses of 3D printing in changing traditional ways of manufacturing in industrial settings.
Turning consumers' dreams into reality
3D printing gives consumers a chance to turn their imagination into reality without manufacturing a product in a factory. Many consumers are designing and creating their own 3D printed models to easily solve problems by using design software such as Autodesk Inventor, Fusion 360, or Blender to create unique 3D printed models that can be created using a 3D printer.
Myself, I commonly create objects such as cup holders, coat hangers or figurines that I either design or download from online to print on my 3D printer. There are also online marketplaces where consumers can purchase or download 3D printable models that other people have created. Thingiverse and myminifactor.com are two places that average people can download designs created by other people. Even companies are designing their own 3D printed models that they post online for their existing products. Ikea has 3D printed files online that users can download to add more functionality to their furniture. Even if you don't have a 3D printer there are many services consumers can use to access to a 3D printer, such as the Ottawa Public Library. There are online services where average consumers can submit the STL files(3D printing file) to be printed your files and have it send it to you. Xometry, 3D Hubs, and Proto Labs are trusted 3D printing service companies that offer a variety of materials or options. If you want to replicate objects that exist in real life using 3D printing, you can purchase a 3D scanner to scan objects to turn them into 3D models. Another option is to take photos and use software such as Photogrammetry and convert them into objects that can be 3d printed.
Printing 3D Houses?
3D printing has changed many industries shifting the way tasks were traditionally done by humans causing achievements that were not possible before. 3D printing homes are starting to become more mainstream due to speed of the prints causing houses to be made faster and cheaper than conventional methods.These 3D printed homes can be found in many countries such as the USA, Australia, and Russia. One American #D printed house only took twelve hours to finish. This is game changing as it makes the long construction time six months or more of traditional house building obsolete as traditional housing takes 6 months to complete.
For example, a house in China that was a two-story house printed in only 45 days and a 400-square-foot house in only 24 hours. This speed of 3D printed houses can be useful for solving homelessness, building homes or shelter for areas hit with natural disasters, or even used in remote locations such as in the Arctic or in space. Also 3D printed houses are more eco-friendly since they use less natural resources like trees as many of the 3d printed homes use a clement material. The construction industry is responsible for 40% of emissions which can be reduced through a cleaner way of making cement-based products like walls and metal components. 3D printed homes produce less energy and the production process only produces 30% of waste, significantly less compared to conventional methods. And, any leftover materials are easily recyclable with 3D printed homes. Furthermore, the cost of 3D printed homes is much cheaper than traditional methods of housing. These large printers extrude concrete through the nozzle and build homes layer by layer. This takes away the added cost of different materials that traditionally are used to build homes such as bricks or wood, decreasing the cost of building them. Also, the labor cost of the construction of the home is drastically decreased as the printer decreases 80% of labor costs as the printer does the work taking away the need for people to build the home. Furthermore the production cost of the home is greatly decreased as there is no need for storing material or using vehicles to move the raw materials for the home. 3D printed homes can allow the house owner to customize by giving the ability to produce complex shapes that are expensive or impossible using traditional methods. Many of these 3D printed homes give the owner the ability to choose the color of the house and some of these homes come with a 3D printer as well to print objects such as light switches or knobs.
3D Printing in the Medical Field
Another field where 3D printing is becoming very common is in the medical field. They are becoming very common with prosthetic body parts for amputees as 3D printed ones can give accurate sizing for patients giving custom fit to patients instead of having a one size fits all.
3D printing prosthetics could be designed to add more mobility to patients compared to protestics on the market right now and with 3D printing prosthetics can be made cheaper. The first 3D printed organ was first achieved in 1999 when a lab-grown urinary bladder was successfully transplanted into a patient from a CT scan of the patient’s bladder. Then the CT scan was used to print a biodegradable scaffold and the cells grown from a tissue sample taken from the patient were layered onto the scaffold. Creating organs and tissues using 3D printing is called bio printing. This printing process uses a material called bio links which can be used to print human tissue which is used to grow tissues and organs such as blood vessels, and a new material called hydrogel is being made that can produce brain or lung tissue. This is a game changer as scientists have even made their own functional organs through 3D printing that is helping patients who are in dire need of organs to survive. 3D printing is being used for Orthotics and insoles which is very important as they can be custom fit for the wear to fix issues such as flat feet. Orthotics are usually not custom made and can be quite expensive but with 3D printing custom orthotists could be achieved through scanning the person's foot and designing a custom orthotic to be printed. With 3D printing, accurate and custom medical models could be designed for patients during different surgeries which is harder and could take a while to make using conventional manufacturing. With these 3D printed medical models doctors can help show their patients during an operation what they plan to do or for specific patients they could take CT scans or MRI to have an exact 3D model to practice operations before being done.
Yum? 3D Printed Food
3D printing is changing conventional cooking methods with increased use of 3D printed foods like chocolate and even 3D printed meat. How most of the “food printers” work is similar to an FDM machine where it extrudes paste-like foods such as purées, mousses, and other viscous foods to stack layers forming interesting designs or shapes. 3D printing can be used for custom molds where chocolate can be melted into a variety of shapes and objects.
There are many unique types of 3D printed foods such as a 3D printer that prints pancakes that can be consumed and can be printed in any design you give to the printer to print. There have been high end restaurants that have opened up that serve 3D printed food and 3D printed pizzas have been achieved. 3D printing is making meat eco-friendly as the first plant-based meat being 3D printed was made to simulate the appearance of meat which could change the way we consume meat. This is affecting the way we consume food as it is making cooking much easier as in the future the user could upload a file and print any food they want.
Changing Transportation through 3D Printing
Manufacturing has changed because of 3D printing and it has changed the many ways vehicle and vehicle parts are manufactured. For example General Electric has created a nozzle for their jet engines as 3D printing can lower the cost and weight of the nozzle that could only be achieved by building 20 separate, intricate pieces. But with 3D printing GE was able to achieve the nozzle with only a single print and the nozzle was printed in a nickel alloy that weights 25% less than their usual nozzle. Also the nozzle is five times more durable compared to traditional methods.
3D Printing is being used in the automotive industry as well with more cars containing 3D printed parts giving more customisation of vehicles. 3D printing has made the production process faster and can produce larger volumes and can make the vehicles lighter, or stronger with cost reductions. For example the first 3D printed motorcycle was completed with all parts being 3d printed except for the electronics showing the potential of 3d printing in the manufacturing field.
3D printing has many uses that are changing many aspects of our society in terms of manufacturing as well as changing how consumers purchase goods. With the increase in 3D printing usage we may be able to manufacture our own products straight from our living room making traditional methods of manufacturing goods from companies obsolete.
Works Cited
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