3D
printing was once a far off fantasy now however it is a real life reality and is getting cheaper and cheaper by the year.
The
technology is still longer than you would like, sometimes taking an entire night to print out a
3D model but it is certainly a lot faster and efficient then older methods. Instead of having to re-tool a machine or start an entire project again all you have to do is simply tweak a
computer model and print it off once more.
How does it work? Well it is rather simple. Instead of the
printer printing
ink onto
paper, a fine powder is used that sets almost like plaster building up the object layer by layer. This method is more efficient then most other ways as it wastes less material and produces models that are normally rather difficult to create.
Yet, what is largely used now for fast-track prototyping could very well bring massive changes to our homes and to industry. This is due to the falling prices in
3D printers and materials and the ability of these
3D printers to now print with a wide range of materials stretching from metal and nylon to recycled paper and even mixed materials.
In theory this means one day we could possibly be ordering and printing our furniture from our very homes.
It sounds absurd but medical researches have already printed off artificial bones based on scans of patients real bones and then implanted these print outs to replace broken or removed bones.
At the same time though this process will need to be safeguarded as in the future you could technically illegally
download say a gearbox or a book case. In essence what has happened to the movie and music industry due to illegal downloading could possibly occur to the manufacturing sector.