Ms. Lesley Johnson
English
March 20, 2013
3D Printing
Our world keeps developing, just as a car keeps going. A car need gasoline to keep going, our world needs fresh minds that innovate. Now-a-days chemical engineers are the gasoline of this world; they are creating so many things. One of the most important inventions done recently is 3D printing which the idea came years ago but it wasn´t so affordable and possible but today it is. 3D printing can be used in things that go from medical equipment to even cloths.
The whole 3D printing idea was started by Charles Hull in 1984. He created the inkjet printer which later with some additions became a 3D printer. 3D printers work like inkjet printers. Instead of ink, 3D printers put the material in layers to create a physical object from a digital one. To create the file there is an extended variety of programs depending on the printer brand. Advanced 3D printers use one or more materials, including plastic, resin, titanium, polymers and even gold and silver.
3D printing is used in many fields now-a-days, some of them are: Automotive, Aviation, Manufacturing, Do it Yourself, Medical and Jewelry. In 2002 when they started to appear as working machines (but still very expensive) a working kidney was done which could actually filter blood. In 2006 the first SLS (selective laser sintering), a type of 3D printer, did a bike and its repair parts. In 2008 RepRap did a printer that could make its own components to duplicate itself and sell it to friends and so. In 2009, the Cubify printer (for home uses) entered the market with a more accessible price of $1400. In 2011, the first 3D printed car was done as well as the first gold and silver printer jewelry. The last important invention done by a 3D printer is a human prosthetic jaw which now is implanted into a man in Netherlands.
We have many types of 3D printers for home use today. This printers and mostly done for small size objects and its prizes vary from $1,000 to $3,500. The 2 most famous ones at this time that are being selled are the Cube by Cubify and the Form 1 by Formlabs. The Cube by Cubify has a cost of $1400 plus $50 per cartridge. This printer can print in 5 colors and print as big as a baskeball. It is designed for home use and can print in plastic only. The Form 1 printer prints in Acrylate Photopolymer Resin and can print in the same scale as the Cube. It is $3300 and its cartridges are about the same price as the Cube.
3D printing is being created to help develop our world. Before, to manufacture a product became very expensive and probably it wouldn’t work. This is intended to give each one of us the power to create, innovate and do things by a low cost by our own (In comparison to all the manufacturing process). This will stop globalization by helping anyone do what they need in their own house. This is also the future of industry in many fields by replacing other high cost assembly machines. One sentence summarizes the creation of 3D printing: The world has just created a tool to create the world.
Work Cited:
• "A BRIEF HISTORY OF 3D PRINTING." Infographics.com. Infographics.com, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
• "Cube." Cubify. 3D Systems, Inc., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
• "THE FORM 1." Formlabs. N.p., 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
