3D printer, or new technologies in the service of people
There is a myth that Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev saw his periodic table of chemical elements in a dream.
Chuck Hull, the man who invented 3D printing, also saw his future brainchild in a dream. Of course, such a printer is not a source of eternal youth, but doctors have already come up with a universal use of the printer in the service of society. 3D printers help doctors print bones, teeth, tumors, and sometimes entire organs.
3D printer, or new technologies in the service of people
More than 30 years have passed since the invention of this technology. With each generation of printers, the principles of polymer hardening changed, the quality of printing changed. The first object, which was printed by Chuck Hull himself, was the simplest circle; several months were spent on its creation. Now beautiful and original things are fashionable to print in just a few hours.
Having collected his first 3D printer and founded 3D Systems, Chuck Hull did not just create a new object, but became the creator of a whole completely new technology industry – “additive technologies”. The essence of additivity is that the object is not created from a monolithic piece by cutting off unnecessary fragments, but is created “from scratch” by adding pieces of fresh raw material.
Since there are a huge number of applications for such printers, they may not look like their “office” counterparts at all. With the help of 3D printing now they print absolutely everything: from houses to cakes.
The current indicator of the volume of the world market for this group of goods is $ 3 billion, according to forecasts, by 2020 this figure will have to grow four (!) Times.
Despite the fact that this technology is not yet at the peak of its popularity, the global manufacturer of aircraft engines Rolls-Royce with full swing prints turbine blades for engines, trusting the latest technologies of people’s life and its name.
What attracts engineers and designers around the world new technology? First of all, high performance and simplicity. It is enough to have a 3D model and you can already expect to receive a finished copy of the output product. Secondly, the low prime cost of the product is especially attractive for manufacturers: you don’t have to spend extra money to pay man-hours spent on production, you don’t need to completely redo the drawings and make a new part, if something needs to be modified in the prototype, you don’t need to make complex forms in several steps, spending on this huge amount of source material.
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In addition, bulk printing is a wonderful and logical continuation of a fully computerized modern production. Absolutely everything: from idea to implementation, is created using a computer. Designing a sketch, creating a technical model, processing and projecting a finished model in a computer environment, creating a special file for a printer … The interference of the human factor at all stages of production is reduced to a minimum.
By the way, Chuck Hull came up with one of the file formats with which you can interpret the commands for a 3D printer.
In addition, the new technology allows not only to create a model from scratch, but also to transfer an already existing object into an electronic environment: here the role of a 3D printer is replaced by a 3D scanner.
3D printer, or new technologies in the service of people
This feature allows you to quickly adjust the properties of the object to the needs of a particular person: customization and personalization when working with the client at the highest level!
Of course, the new technology has its drawbacks, but they are rather insignificant. Mostly critics are focused on low print speeds and high grit sizes. But do not forget that over the past 30 years, a breakthrough has been made in the speed of such printers, and in the future these figures will only improve. Already, various versions of printers have been developed that can print simultaneously with several heads, creating multi-color models, or printers that use continuous printing technology — the photopolymer stiffens so quickly that there is no need for layer-by-layer operation of the head.
It is also possible to reflect on the quality of surface treatment for a long time – not all industries require an ideal surface, for most companies it is much more important to get a new piece quickly, test it, modify it and quickly get a real sample. And with these tasks, additive technologies cope remarkably.
3D printer, or new technologies in the service of people
Chuck Hull recalls that 30 years from bulky and slow cars to portable devices will be passed so quickly.
