Printing the Future - 3D Printers

Thursday 15 January 2015

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3d-printing
We sometimes wish that there was some spell that we could just draw  a thing we want and it could come to existence. Sadly there is no such spell but the science genie has done it. 
The 3D printing technology has made it possible to weave your dreams into reality. Using this amazing technology you can print just any object. Draw your object on Auto-CAD and feed it to the magical 3D printer and wait to see the 
wonder.

What is 3D printing?

3d printing also referred to as rapid prototyping or additive manufacturing is a process of fabricating three dimensional objects by using a CAD ( Computer-aided design ) file.

How 3D objects are created?

We are aware of printing mechanism of our traditional ink jet and laser printers. 3D printers are not actually printers.
They are more of manufacturing machines which are given desired input using CAD file. The CAD design is chopped into large number of small horizontal layers. These layers are then printed using the desired material (which depends upon  the object you are printing) one upon the other and surprisingly there is no trace of layers on the finished object.
The resulting object is precise replica of its digital input. The feature of printing an object layer wise makes it possible for the 3D printer to print any object that
is geometrically possible.

Materials used:

As already stated material used largely depends upon the object being manufactured,a large range of materials could be used in 3D printing ranging form plastic,steel,wax, nylon ABS plastic, photo polymers  etc which are fused together using high powered lasers and special gels. Scientists are attempting to use living cells as a material in 3D printers which will revolutionize the modern day organ transplant. Research is also conducted to use cement and concrete as printing materials to use 3D printers for construction.

Time required for printing:

Time required for printing a 3D object varies from a few hours to even days depending upon the size and complexity of the object. For instance recently a car was printed using 3D printer that took only 44 hours. Then again it mostly depends upon size, complexity and printer itself.

Applications:

3d-printing
The most fascinating thing about 3D printers is their infinate applications. 3D printers would revolutionize the future with their boundless applications in all sort of fields including education, food, construction, medical,automotive industries.

Ranging from printing a small 3D toy for your child to a giant sky-scrapper, from a pizza to an 3D printed heart, 3D printing guarantees  a future that only existed in science fictions.







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