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Better Resolution, Speed, and Size: Kudo 3D’s Titan 1 3D Printer Review

The new kid on the block in the arena of desktop 3D printers is the Titan 1 printer which has been brought to the market by Kudo3D. The company which was started in 2012 by Tedd Syao has created its first product by the name of Titan 1.

Titan 1 is a user friendly desktop Digital Light Processing (DLP) Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer. Printers having the DLP technology have been gaining popularity in the past few years. The projector shines on the surface of a liquid plastic resin that becomes hard when it is exposed to light of certain wavelength. The light draws and hardens layer by layer until the entire model is made.

Some of the features of the printer are as follows.

  • Build volume of the Titan 1 is 7.5″W x 4.25″D x 9.5″H (19.2cm x 10.8cm x 24.3cm)
  • Resolution of the machine is 37μm to 100μm on the X and Y axes and 1μm on the Z axis
  • XY resolution of 25μm and
  • Z resolution of 300μm
  • Speed: 1.3 – 2.7 in/hr for of 100μm
  • Material: Photo Resin
  • Technology: DLP-SLA with PSP

The price of the machine is predicted to be $1,999 which is quite an affordable price for a 3D printer that can save time. The company hasn’t given any clear indication as to the price of Titan that has been predicted is for the assembled one or the kit form. The resolution and the promises that have been made by the creators are tempting but nothing can be said until the machine is tested.

Image Credit: Kudo3d.com

 

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3D Printing solves Orthopedic problems

The contribution of 3D printing in the healthcare sector cannot be neglected. From prosthetics to body implants 3D printing is the star of all the sectors. In the field of orthopedics, 3D printing has been the technology to resolve many problems which earlier we hard to solve.

After prosthetics now a new era of orthopedic surgery is shaping up at the Peking University where an Electron Beam Melting (EBM) 3D printer is being used to create titanium implants that are a perfect fit with the patient’s body. For many years Dr. Liu Zhongjun has used this technique to develop new spinal implants. He has created many such customized implants which are patient specific. Dr. Zhongjun has used these implants on more than 50 patients and nobody had any undesirable side effects or any adverse reaction. Dr. Zhongjun says that “3D printing technology has two very nice features: 1. It can print specific structures; 2. It is capable of producing porous metal.”

Similar work can be seen in progress in UK, but the difference being that these spinal implants are being created in a dental lab. The dental lab which is based in Nottingham by the name of Attenborough Dental is one of the largest dental laboratories in Europe which operates in more than 20 countries worldwide. Recently the company has received a fund of £146,000 from TSB Strategy Board for the transfer of knowledge with the University of Nottingham and the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC). With the help of this funding the company has employed a post graduate research assistant to help to apply digital technologies to orthopedics.

This lab will be the first lab that will transfer 3D printing technology used in the dental field to orthopedics. The company plans to use 3D scanners and 3D printing to create spinal implants, which later would evolve and be used for knees and hips. The lab is planning to 3D scan the patient and then makes a customized spinal implant with the help of a 3D scanner. The lab expects to make these customized spinal implants for 24 patients by the end of next year. The lab has a 3D patient scanning centre which has an accuracy level of 20 microns. Currently spinal implants are generic which means that there is only one basic size that is fitted in everybody’s body. Since everybody body is different from one another, patients have to adjust themselves with the implant rather than the implant fitting them.

The immense potential that 3D printing has is still undiscovered. Slowly the concept of 3D printing is revolutionizing the medical world. Last year, doctors at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine successfully transplanted 3D printed bones into four patients with cervical spine disc herniation. The cost is also quite low that is incurred to make these implants.

With the advancement in the technologies of 3D printing and 3D scanning, the target market and the application of these technologies are bound to expand in no time at all. It all depends on us and to what degree we are ready to exploit this technology. Attenborough Dental has realized this, and is all set on a journey to unveil something new to the healthcare industry.

Image Credit: Michael Dorausch  (flickr handle: chiropractic)

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AIO Robotics launches All in one 3D Printer – Zeus

Earlier the entire process of 3D printing was distorted and disoriented. The various equipments that were needed to 3D print an object were to be purchased separately but now the picture is about to change drastically with the introduction of Zeus!

Zeus is perhaps the first and also the only device that allows users to 3D Scan, Print, Copy, and Fax objects with a touch of a button. Believe it or not, that’s right; it’s the first 3D all-in-one! Zeus which is the product of AIO Robotics which is a Los Angeles tech firm seeks to bridge the gap between 3D scanning and printing for the customers of the 21st century who are keen users of integrated technology. The process is rather simple. The object that you want to replicate is placed inside Zeus, the machine scans it and then a copy is created. Personal 3D files can also be uploaded for printing. All this is controlled by a touch screen interface which is of 7- inches. With the help of the 7 inch interface any object which is less than 9 inches in diameter and 5 inches tall can be placed on the machines turntable, where it is scanned using a technology which the AIO calls as the “swiping laser triangulation”. The resultant data is stored wither in an 8GB on board memory or onto a MicroSD card. It runs on Exynos-based quad-core 1.7 Ghz system. The machine has a fax function which allow for the sending of designs from one Zeus printer to another. The printer uses PLA material for printing. The most amazing part of the whole thing is that the finished product can either be printed or it can be faxed via an internet connection to be printed elsewhere on the planet. It is the next-gen replicator with abilities of teleportation.

Apart from all these amazing properties, one caution by makers of Zeus is that the scanning process can be a bit slow, and might take up to 30 minutes. Also, it might not perform so well with dark, reflective or fuzzy surfaces. The target audience of this product is people who are working in offices and schools. The machine is designed to fit these environments as well.

All this and much more come for a whopping $2,500 which is affordable once all the features are taken into consideration. These days 3D printers come as cheap as $200 and 3D scanners are somewhat of the same price. But the main challenge is that of putting them together and getting them to work properly in a synchronized manner. For people who do not have the engineering skills it would be gigantesque task to get a 3D printed object. For such people the ideal machine would be Zeus.

The company plans to roll out these printers among the consumer by the summer of 2014. AIO plans to ship these products only in the United States in the beginning. The international 3D geeks will have to wait for the company to launch the product internationally.

Image Source: aiorobotics.com

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Dark Side of 3d Printing: Lethal 3d Printed Plastic weapons

The happy go lucky face of 3D printing has started showing its other side, when a Texas law student designed and released the digital blueprints for the world’s first fully printable gun. The freebie was allegedly downloaded more than 1, 00,000 times, ignoring the fact of a domestic ban on distributing the files from the U.S. State Department.

The 3D printed guns are being regarded by many as an issue of national threat. Lawmakers are on the lookout for making these plastic 3D weapons a listed national security threat, which in turns opens the doors for legislation and control of such weapons. The already existing arms act, which is known as the Undetectable Firearms Act was passed in 1988 and was updated in 1998 and re revised in 2003. The act demands that all plastic firearms have enough metal components to trigger a metal detector. This act expires on 9th December, 2013.

To support the skepticism of lawmakers the experts of National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) conducted an experiment, which shows a 3D printed gun being shot in a safe environment. Using slow motion cameras, the English authorities show barrels exploding, pieces of plastic scattering everywhere and even pieces of the gun being stuck in the ceiling.

Apart from NABIS, there are two other organizations that have conducted similar tests to prove the potential threat that these devices could pose on the security of the nation. An American and an Israeli organization had conducted similar tests which have been rated as misleading customers by Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, the company that distributes the 3D Liberator printable gun, because during the experiment acetone vapor was not used on the barrel. The other experiment was conducted by the agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) spent months testing these plastic weapons. The findings of the bureau suggest that the gun is both lethal and are undetectable under metal scanners. It could take 10-18 hours to print the various parts of the gun. The gun is made out of strong and flexible material with bullets that can penetrate a person’s vital organs or even the skull at a close range. To this Wilson said that the tests that were conducted by the ATF used guns with springs which were not approved for use in the guns. In addition to this Wilson also said that, “Liberator springs don’t even work in the weaker materials that would make the gun explode.”

On the other hand the Detective Chief Superintendent at NABIS, Iain O’Brien, said that reason behind the tests was: “We need to make people aware that producing a firearm in this way is illegal and could cause serious injury to the person holding the gun”.

With the rise of the threat that can be caused by 3D guns there are companies that are coming up with scanners that can detect these plastic guns which otherwise escaped metal detectors. If not for these scanners the only security procedure to catch these 3D printed plastic firearms would have been pat down.

Image Credit: Mirko Tobias Schaefer  (flicker handle: gastev)

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3D Printing – Boon or bane for employment

Every now and then, a new technology gets invented that disrupts the accepted practices of doing thing. The upheaval that this new technology creates, induces lot of uncertainity in the minds of people. Some people ones look forward to the impact the technology creates on humns whereas an equal number of people become very skeptical as it leads to huge job losses and disrupts the accepted practices of doing things. This happened during 1600s when printing press was invented making it redundant to write stuff, same happened when computers were invented in 1980s leading to job losses for type writers and now this will happen will 3D printing.

We have already observed intense debates on impact 3D printing have on the economy. The fundamental pessimistic view on 3D printing is that there will be tens of millions of job losses and the entire jobs market will be decimated as 3D printing automates the whole manufacturing process. So, will 3D printing really lead to job losses as stated. Let us look at each section of the supply chain and figure out how 3D printing affects it.

Raw Materials:

Raw materials are very fundamental for every product we consume. These are either retrieved from Earth or are produced artificially.  And with the advent of 3D printing, the need for different kinds of raw materials increased. Once 3D printing becomes mature, it becomes so cheap and easy to produce things for consumption that more and more goods get produced. And this leads to an increase in the need for raw materials in a big way. And this leads to increase in the jobs of producing raw materials. So, 3D printing actually will have a positive impact on raw materials sector.

Manufacturing:

It is very obvious that few years down the lane, once 3D printing technology gets matured, there will be significant job losses in the manufacturing industry. Companies increase their capital expenditure to acquire automated machines. But this isn’t something new. From the time mankind existed, he always looked at automating (reducing human effort) the tasks he has been doing. 3D printing is  just more step in that direction. Though it does lead to job losses in the traditional manufacturing sector, it creates equal or more number of jobs in various other sector. For example, 3D printing industry requires whole lot of software development, printer production, materials, R&D, maintenance.  So, the traditional jobs will perish but in that place new jobs get created. And those jobs require different skill sets..

Retail: 

As with manufacturing, retail will also see major changes. When one can download a shoe design from thousands of designs present on the net and have a shoe printed at his / her home at a fraction of the cost, why would one go and purchase a shoe from a retail store. Of course, it takes decade or two for this to happen but this definitely happens one day. And when this happens, retail outlets are forced to close the shop leading to huge job losses. But again, new kind of retail (or e-tail)  jobs get created selling printers, materials and designs.

Job Creation: 

Definitely millions of jobs will be lost due to 3D printing but for every job lost equal or more number of jobs get created.  3D printing brings down the costs of production substantially. This saving will then be passed to customer leading to a lower cost of living and a better quality of living worldwide. As more money becomes available, that gets spent on innovation which will eventually create millions of new jobs. And we are already seeing thousands of new jobs being created around the 3D printing industry. Moreover, manufacturing will become more local as the automated manufacturing process leads to relocation of plants near to customers.

Summing it all, as with any disruptive technology, 3D printing leads to job losses in millions but at the same time an equal or more number of new jobs get created. These new jobs require completely different skill sets than the existing ones. So, it is upto us to humans to adapt to the fact that change is the only constant in this world and continue to acquire new skill sets throughout the life.

Image Credit: daily sunny (flickr handle: 53558245@N02)

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Piracy Threat for growth of 3D Printing

After placing a firm foot in the entertainment industry, the pirates are all set to venture into the 3D printing industry. As people are becoming more and more aware of the things that a 3D printer is capable of doing, the usage of this technology is gaining momentum. The explosion of 3D printing has opened the door to a world where potentially anything and everything can be made at home and so it can be rightfully said that anything can be pirated or copyright violated!

In the 3D printing industry there has been instances where people have attempted to recreate objects like the very famous and antic Aston Martin car to an  illusion of an object impossible to create, this trend shows that anything is possible, even the impossible. In the future, any new product design will be instantly copied, 3D scanned and re-sold, meaning that anyone will be able to own just about anything that too for free. This might sound a little futuristic but this will come true. And technology advances we are going back to the age old practices, where everything depended on sharing. History most certainly repeats itself. Bre Pettis, chief executive of 3D printing company Makerbot, most rightfully said, “I don’t think we need a marketplace. It’s a sharing world, we are at the dawn of the age of sharing where, even if you try to sell things, the world is going to share it anyway.”

There are various internet sites that are providing people with the necessary blue prints for 3D printing objects. The most recent one in the news was the torrent sharing website called “the Pirate Bay”, which gives everyone a file- sharing platform which in other words is a platform for exchanging 3D goods. Pirate Bay has a category for 3D printing objects which is known as the “physibles”. The other very famous site for sharing design files for 3D printing is thingiverse.com. On this site there are numerous downloadable digital blue prints which do cover a very wide range; right from Disney’s Yoda to custom key chains all is now available almost for free. In one of the most recent developments, a Belgian company Moulinsart discovered 3D printing designs of the cartoon rocket of the very famous cartoon character of Tintin on thingiverse.com. It immediately asked the company to take down the blue prints from the site. People are making guns or at least are trying to 3D print such objects. Another website known as the 3DLT was recently discovered as being the marketplace for 3D designs which has been stocking and selling design for 3D printed objects. The ironic thing is that the blueprints that are available on this site do not belong to the site nor do they have the rights to re-sell. 3DLT sells STL’s, which are fundamentally documents in the Standard Tessellation Language which is used by most of the 3D printers to print objects. In layman’s term, these STL files are the recipes or programs that are needed to build these physical things. An individual named Fernando Sosa who is a designer got a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice from HBO, asking the designer to stop selling his 3D-printed Game of Thrones iPhone dock.

These are one of the few examples of the extent of piracy that is evident in this industry. This unauthorized copying and sharing of designs should be stopped right at the embryonic stage so that the emergence of the next Napster can be stopped. A startup based in Mountain View, California known as the Authentise has developed the first commercial solution to this theoretical problem. The software developed by Authentise makes it possible for a design to be sent to a 3-D printer in such a way that it can be printed only once, it cannot be copied or shared.The logic behind this is similar to the way Netfix sends the viewers at home a stream of video frames only as their computer needs them to play a movie. There are instructions that tell the 3D printer as to how to spurt out materials so that the desired 3D printed object can be achieved. Once this is done the files are automatically deleted restricting the user from copying or sharing the blueprints of the object. The company tries to do this by watermarking objects. The other company that is working on the same grounds is Dai-Nippon Printing Company which has developed a security program that prevents 3D printers from printing hazardous objects (like firearms and guns) and copyrighted objects. The security program will be used practically in 2017. The program is capable of cross checking the blue prints that are inserted in the 3D printer with a database of items that require legal permission for printing. If it detects a blacklisted item such as guns or copyrighted materials for printing it will immediately shut down the 3D printer. This blacklisted names list can be updated regularly.

On the other hand there are a few people who feel that it’s highly unlikely that counterfeit 3D printed objects will flood the market in the years to come. Those who believe on this, base their thinking on the 3 fold paths, which are:

Quality

There’s a lot of difference between the original object and a 3D printed object, despite of the evolution in the field of scanners, software and 3d printers it’s quite a challenging task to print something that is a high-quality replicas of cheap, mass produced physical things. Raw materials play the key role in the production process and with the given restrictions that exist with the usage of raw materials in 3D printers. It will be an uphill task for the 3D printers to rule the existing market.

Multimaterial World

Most of the things that we use in our day to day lives is an amalgamation of more than one thing, even the simple pencil is made of wood, graphite, rubber and metal. For a 3D printer to work with two different types materials, itself is a difficult task leave alone more than two materials. This limitation of materials will always limit the usage of 3D printers.

Time

If the two problems stated above are somehow taken care of, there still remains the problem of time. 3D printing is a very slow process. In order to get a printout of something that is as simple as a plastic cup, the printer will take hours.

Both the sides might have their own way of looking at situation that exists in this industry. If 3D printing is all set to create a big change to objects as there have been changes in the music industry in the past, where everything could be pirated, then most certainly there could be some rough patches for the pirates as well as the right holders in the near future.

ImageCredit: Raúl Hernández González (flickr handle: rahego)

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Industrial Applications of 3D Printing

3D printing alias additive manufacturing (AM) or direct digital manufacturing (DDM) is truly a game changing technology that has the potential to revolutionize the manufacturing of objects in the 21st century. It also marks the new age of mass personalization that promises to enhance innovation, encourage better use of resources and renovate the way things are being produced. The 3D printing industry is growing with leaps and bounds; it already reached 2 billion USD in 2012 and is expected to reach 7 billion USD by 2025. Growth in various industries along with the advancement in the technology has brought about a rapid growth in the budding 3D printing industry. Automotive, medical and consumer products are more than eager to adopt this technology in their manufacturing processes and also to take the industry in a whole new level.

Initially 3D printing was developed for rapid proto-typing of various objects. It allowed designer to design the products in a very precise manner saving time and energy and also the massive costs that are incurred while printing these proto-types. However, ever since the 3D printers started being used in various sectors, the evolution of the technology associated with these printers has evolved in no time. Making them one of the most desired technologies in the world. With the increase in the popularity of this technology most of the industries have embraced this technology with open arms. This technology has flourished in the jewelry and other personalized fashion item, in dental laboratories to produce crowns, bridges and implants as well as in the production of hearing aids and prostheses offering patients a perfect fit.

The first commercial 3D printing technology was invented in 1984 by Charles Hull. It’s been almost 30 years now and the 3D printing industry has moved rapidly up the ladder from Stereolithography to Bio-printing.

Medicines are perhaps the most exciting areas of application. This technology has evolved in no time from producing prosthetics and hearing aids to bio-printing of body parts. The breakthroughs in this area are rapid and awe-inspiring. Way back in 2002, the surgeons at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Mattel Children’s Hospital used 3D printing to plan a complex operation of conjoined twins. The duration of the operation was reduced considerably with the use of this model, usually the operation takes about 97 hours but with the use of this technology the time was reduced to 22 hours. In 2011, surgeons at the University Hospital in Belgium performed a complex facial transplant. Anatomical models and patients specific guides were 3D printed for use before and during the procedure. In 2012, doctors and engineers at the Hasselt University performed the world’s first patient-specific prosthetic jaw transplant for a patient who was suffering from a chronic bone disease.

The next big step in the healthcare sector is that of 3D printing of human tissues. In 2009, a UK based company Organovo collaborated with Invetech produced the world’s first Bio-printer. In 2010, Organovo officially announced to have successfully generated the first bio-printed blood vessels.

The other industry that has been massively influenced by the 3D printing technology is the automotive and aerospace sector. 3D printing is being used to make complex parts for electronics, automotive and aerospace industries. The giants of car manufacturing such as GM, Jaguar Land Rover and Audi have used this technology to make auto parts for quite some time now. Leading aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing are using this technology to improve the performance, reduce the maintenance cost and fuel cost. Boeing has used this technology to build the Environment Control Ducting (ECD) for the 787 aircraft. The production and assembly of the ECD is quite exhaustive as it has around 20 different parts which can now be 3D printed as one piece. 3D printing of aircraft components that are 65% lighter but as strong as the traditional parts saves a lot of money and also reduces carbon emission. The amount of money that is being saved by the aircraft manufacturers is gigantesque. For every 1 kilogram reduction in the weight, the airlines company saves approximately US $ 35,000 in fuel cost. The aircraft industry is all set to make an entire aircraft with the help of 3D printing by the year 2050.

Even NASA, is more than eager to use this technology in their ventures to outer space. The engineers in NASA are 3D printing parts for its space launch system. Recently the robot that was sent to Mars by NASA the Mars Rover has almost 70 custom parts which were 3D printed. Scientists are also exploring the possibilities to use this technology at the International Space Station to make spare parts on the spot.

Apart from these mesmerizing commercial applications of 3D printing, 3D printing is all set to enter in the public arena with the desktop manufacturing system. 3D printers such as Cube by 3D systems, the Cubex or MakerBot’s Replicator 2X is paving the path of bringing the possibility of home manufacturing one step closer to reality. For all those people who are DIYers should purchase the RepRap kit which costs around US $500 and can print their own 3D printer in no time at all. The software of the RepRap kit is an open file so anyone can make necessary changes and even sell it. According to the business analysts at CSC say that “the rate of innovation of the RepRap and its derivatives is accelerating faster than equivalent commercial 3D printers. In January 2013, the biggest mobile phone manufacturer Nokia decided to make 3D printable files for the Lumia 820 phone so that anyone could create their own design and print them.

The scope of 3D printing applications is limitless. Since the target market is very huge and the competition is minimal, these applications are bound to grow rapidly and displace the traditional engineering applications of 3D printing. These industry trends indicate the paradigm shift in the manufacturing industry. These implications also suggest that the radical impact on the way things are made and also the way business is done. The journey of 3D printing till now has been incredibly captivating but the next few years will be breathtaking!

 

Image Credit: Harald (flickr handle: haarald)

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3D Printing repairs the most complex machine – the Human Body

The 21st century seems to be engulfed by the 3D printing revolution, with well known applications in the field of architecture, manufacturing, engineering and now healthcare. The new concept in the healthcare sector is that of bio-printing. Bio-printing is a unique combination of 3D scanner, organic inks and thermoplastics, which in turn produce a wide range of human body parts that are used in a wide array of medical conditions.

The world as we see it today was something that none could imagine a few years ago but now it all seems to be true. 5 or 10 years ago if someone who say 3D printing of body parts was possible, we would all laugh it out but now it’s the reality of today. As comprehensible it may sound today, 3D printing an entire body may only be a few decades away. This is a topic that is surrounded by many issues like spiritual, ethical and moral.

With the dawn of real body parts replacement, prosthetic body parts are a concept which is on the verge of extinction. Bio-printing is helping in producing a wide range of actual organs and living body parts. Some of the successfully bop printed parts are:

  • Skulls

In one of the most interesting reports is that of a young woman from Netherland who underwent a skull replacement operation. The procedure was carried out at the University Medical Centre Utrecht. She was suffering from a chronic bone disorder because of which the thickness of the skull had increased from 1.5cm to 5cm because of this she was losing her vision rapidly. If the replacement would not have been done then there would have been a lot of damage to the brain as well. After three months of the operation the patient returned back to work as well as gained her vision. Thumbs up to that!

 

  • Eyes

The UK based company Fripp Design and Research along with the UK’s Manchester Metropolitan University has materialized the idea of batch printing of prosthetic eyes. The company produces up to 150 prosthetic eyes in a batch. This process also reduces the cost of these artificial eyes as it is a mass production process. The process targets developing countries such as India who are interested in these affordable products.

 

  • Noses and Ears

Fripp Design and Research has collaborated with the University of Sheffield, in the United Kingdom, to produce facial prostheses such as ears and noses. The facial scan of the patient is used to print out prosthetics using pigments, starch powder and silicone. The best part of these prosthetics is that once they wear replacements can be ordered at a fraction of the cost.

Apart from this a team at the Cornell University is doing things a little differently. Its printing 3D moulds of the patients ear with the help of ink gels which have living cells in them. The printed product are then injected with bovine cartilage cells and rat collagen and incubated until they are ready in the span of three months.

 

  • Synthetic Skin

Ground breaking progress is being made in this field by James Yoo from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in the United States and Dr. Sophie Wuerger and her team at the University of Liverpool in the UK. Yoo is developing a printer that would print straight onto the wounds of burn victims. The ink that is being used consists of enzymes and collagen which once printed is placed in layers with tissue cells and skin cell which when combine form the skin graft. On the other hand, Dr. Sophie Wuerger and her team are making use of 3D cameras, image processing and skin modeling to ensure that the new skin matches with the texture and tone of the real thing.

 

  • Limbs

Thermoplastics have led the way in the development of printable hands, arms and even individual fingers. A South African company by the name of Robohand is producing affordable printable hands and fingers. The company is combining thermoplastic and aluminum/ stainless steel digits to create a mechanical and fully functional finger.

In recent developments Robohand has collaborated with U.S. entrepreneur Mike Ebeling on a project that is all set to produce affordable printed arms to war amputees in Sudan. The company has named the project by the name of “Project Daniel”. The team is all set to reach to the masses with cheap and durable artificial hands at a minimal cost of $100.

 

  • Bones

One of the most established fields of 3D printing is the bio-printing of human bone implants and now bone replacement. In 2011 researchers at Washington State University developed a bone structure using Calcium phosphate which was successfully tested on animals.

 

  • Breasts

At the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia women with mastectomies are more than eager to use 3D printed scaffolds that help in regenerating breasts using fats. The process of Liposuction is used to remove fat cells from the stomach area which is then injected in the breast area.

 

  • Kidneys

The Hangzhou Dianzi University in China announced the creation of a small working kidney that lasted for almost four months.

 

  • Livers

The development of 3D printed livers is something that will definitely help many who are on the waiting list of getting a liver transplant. Dr. Nizar Zein, Medical Director of Liver Transplantation in Cleveland has started an initiative to develop perfectly working 3D printed livers. Until now, the surgeons in Cleveland have used 3D printed livers in more than 25 surgeries.

 

With all these developments, it’s foreseeable that one day the concept of 3D printing an entire human body will come true. As people start ageing their bodies’ starts failing and in such a case it is quite natural for us all to wish to make a younger body that functions perfectly. Some claim that 3D printing of an entire body as well as the components blurs the line between man and machine and also giving us the right to ‘play God’ on an unprecedented scale.

On the brighter note bio-printing has the potential to revolutionize medicine and the healthcare industry beyond our thoughts and imagination which seemed to be impossible some 20 years back.

Image Credit: wonderlane (flickr handle: wonderlane)

 

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5 interesting applications of 3D printing

It is a given fact that 3D printing is a revolutionary technology. While some naysayers say there is more hype than content surrounding 3D printing, we believe there are concrete ways in which this technology can impact our day to day lives and make this world a better place. Below listed are seven ways 3D printing could impact our lives.

 1. Food:

Printed food may not sound appetizing to the ears, but very soon we are going to see the concept of printed food. And printing food has various advantages. Currently, there is lot of food wastage happening as restaurants have to prepare various food items upfront. With printed food concept, restaurants can print the food as and when customers order food. This brings down the cost and wastage. Chefs can create elaborate chocolate designs as per customer taste. NASA has also been looking into pizza printers for its hungry astronauts and other printers dedicated to pasta, corn and candy hint at the possibilities for food fabrication.

2. Body Parts:

Many believe 3D printers can save and change lives by printing organs on demand. Current approach of transplantation is highly ineffective. There are millions of patients across the world waiting for organ donations. Also,  storage and transportation of organs is a very complex process. So, if 3D printers can print the organs, it can significantly shorten the waiting time period. So far, scientists have printed ears, kidneys and bones. Although, organ functionality is a work-in-progress, it is very likely that 3D printing will make huge contributions to the field of medicine over the next few decades.

3. Personal Figurines & Gifts:

One major current application of 3D printing is the creation of personal figurines & custom gifts. A few years from now, one needn’t go to a gift shop to buy a nice gift. All one needs to do is to open a website, select the kind of gift one wants to print and then just print the gift. One can thus choose from a wide variety of items and present a custom gift. Also, one can have personal figurines printed to cherish one’s precious moments. All customers have to do is strike a pose for 15 minutes while the scanner takes a digital model.

4. Toys:

One major application of 3D printing can be printing custom toys. Many would love to have printed models of characters in various games like Minecraft. There are some application that allow you to take objects from in-game world and convert them into ready-to-print 3D models.

5. Homes:

So far we have heard of building homes. But what about printing homes. Looking at the way some Chinese companies are already printing 3D houses, we believe 3D printing of houses will soon be a reality. One Suzhou-based construction materials firm Winsun is responsible for this 3D printing of houses. The firm took standard CAD designs for buildings and printed out their walls by using a machine that extrudes a mix of high-grade cement and recycled glass fiber, layering it until the wall is finished. In a similar fashion, the firm also printed various fittings that would be needed to bring the building up to standard. All parts were then moved from the factory to the building site and the buildings are assembled on-site.  Once 3D printing of houses get standardized, it will solve one major problem various governments are facing – Housing for all.

6. Jewelry:

By using 3D digital and 3D printing technology, the transformation from the traditional production model to digital and rapid jewelry production solution in jewelry industry could be realized.

7. Education & Research: 

3D printing, and open-source 3D printers, in particular, are the latest technology making inroads into the classroom. 3D printing allows students to create prototypes of items without the use of expensive tooling required in subtractive methods. Students design and produce actual models they can hold. The classroom environment allows students to learn and employ new applications for 3D printing.

Image Credit: Creative Tools (flickrhandle: Creative_Tools)