3D Printing

The first time I ever heard about 3D printing was in a post entitled Working in the Wild West on Mark's blog The Caffeinated Engine Driver.  I have to admit that despite quite a few further posts on the subject of printing railway goods wagons and various other things I have had trouble coming to terms with the concept.  Now I have seen the light.

I had, as one might expect, read the Wikipedia article.  Frankly at the time I gave up.  Not so much because I'm unintelligent but because I got overwhelmed with detail.  I've since re-read it and almost persevered. 

A few days ago I happened to see an advert in one of my emails from Maplin for a domestic 3D printer.  Then I picked up my Auto Express and there was an article explaining the whole thing.  Why in the Auto Express?  Because it could revolutionise car designing and spare parts supply.  The real thing about the article, though, was that it was written in journalese and therefore relatively simple.  I like simple.

The conventional manufacture of many items is achieved by taking a block of a material and removing parts (e.g. wood and metal turning on a lathe).  Other items may be made in a mould.  Both have limitations.

3D printing is a manufacturing process that builds layers to create a three-dimensional solid object from a digital model.  At its most simple it uses an additive process in which a spool of plastic the diameter of uncooked spaghetti is melted in a print head similar to a glue gun.  The plastic is set down one wafer-thin layer at a time.  As each layer is laid the printer bed is lowered one human hairs breadth and another layer is laid down.  Multiple heads can use multiple materials in the same process.

Many different materials and many different uses (e.g. 3D printing can be used from producing prototype cars to a titanium replacement human jaw) are possible.

Who could ever have imagined a situation where you go into a garage and he prints the spare part while you wait?   The thing is that that is no longer science fiction.  It is a practical proposition.

Thanks Mark.  A whole new knowledge sphere has just opened up for me.

For those wanting to see the products produced by one of the leading 3D Printers then a visit to the Shapeways website is interesting.