These articles were written whilst employed with NetworthPick, the website and social media have been deleted, so I have preserved my articles here.
For many years now social media has been full of examples of creations made through 3D printers. Similarly, the sharing of designs and blueprints is really spurring on some real innovation in the area. With the cost of entry into this technology going down, we are witnessing businesses embrace this technology. This article will look into the reasons behind this shift in industry and look into the benefits to utilising this technology for your business.
What is it?
In its early days of this technology we saw its adoption mainly taken up within the hobbyist space. It was used to produce small models and crafts, more as a proof of concept than as a real product. This type of production is also called ‘Additive Manufacturing’ in the industrial space. This type of manufacturing is where you build the item up layer by layer with the aim to be able to produce products at a fraction of the price and time of conventional methods.
Plastic based 3D printing is usually achieved by feeding the plastic material like a string into the machine, where the device melts it to place it down, then cools so it sets in place. This process is repeated over and over again as the design gets created using this method. As the environmental concerns take a larger position in our plans for the future, many newer plastic 3D printers are utilising recycled or less harmful plastics.
Applications for this technology
Food
One of the most groundbreaking applications for this technology is the food industry. For thousands of years the technological advancements in the way we produce and prepare food has been a central driving force in our societal evolution.
Cast your mind back to 2015 when a Croatian company received viral fame online with their pizza vending machine. The company, Let’s Pizza, was inadvertently one of the first proto-examples of 3D-printing food. Fast forward now to 2022, and we now see a variety of high-end 3D printing restaurants, and a wide selection of 3D printing appliances for the kitchen.
Looking towards the future of how this type of printing could take a key role in our day to day lives is through the printing of meat. As climate issues become a larger part of the global conversation, our relationship with meat has always been a contentious one. As the cost to produce meat to us in the traditional way increases, new methods will need to be adopted.
One of the best modern examples of this technology is used through Marco Piere White’s restaurants, as his cooking and selling of the plant based meat alternatives called Redefine Meat. The biggest issue meat alternatives have had at convincing meat eaters to switch has been largely down to texture. Through the layered building process, plant based proteins and other ingredients for flavour build up over and over again to produce an item which looks, tastes and has the texture like meat. The types of proteins used vary by company to company, with many using Soy or Pea Protein to build the layers.
Medicine
Another lesser discussed avenue for applications of 3D printing is within Medicine. Following on similarly to the previous example of meat, 3D printing could be used to produce organs for transplant for patients. When the technology is used in this way it can be called Bio-Printing. This process is done through a computer controlled pipette to repeatedly layer living cells on top of each other to ‘build’ the organ.
The ability to produce specific organs to order for the use in transplants would greatly increase the patient’s wellbeing and survival rates for all involved. This type of technology would also have the further benefit of removing the need for animal testing and cosmetic testing through the use of printed cells to test it on without needing to use animals.
With a lot of emerging medical technologies, the human applications of these can take time to go through all the regulation and other procedures to be able to perform it. Currently, only a handful of patients have received a printed organ transplant. In 2004, a patient at the Boston Children’s Hospital who had been undergoing treatment for spina bifida which left a gap in their spine. Using a modified inkjet printer and the patient’s own bladder cells the doctors were able to build a host for the cells to incubate and grow the replacement bladder which was successfully transplanted into the patient. They have not had to have any extra surgery since, and due to it being built from the patient’s own cells there hasn’t been any issues with rejection.
Accessibility
One of the more heart-warming applications that have been seen online is the use in producing accessibility tools for people. In the early part of 2021 social media was swept by a story of the Tik-Tok creator Jimmy Choi, who uploads videos explaining the daily struggles of living with Parkinson’s, who was looking for an alternative to the pill bottles they had to use and get their medication out of. This spurred on designers and engineers from all round the world to come up with a solution. Through many back and forths and different designs the community came together to design a 3D-printable bottle that would remove the need to dig for an individual pill.
After many designs the product has been perfected and people who have access to 3D-printers have been producing and printing these pill bottles to send to other people who would benefit from them. This again is another example of the benefits of building a strong community, when different aspects can come together to help solve real world problems.
Another example of how this technology can improve accessibility is through the printing of controller adaptors. For people with only access to one hand, gaming can have some obstacles to their play. Through the development of tools the whole controller can be adapted to work one handed.
This also helps show how by involving those whose issues are being addressed, a more equitable solution can be found improving accessibility for all.
Construction
One of the more larger applications for 3D-Printing is in the construction industry. Its applications to this industry are varied, ranging from printing furniture or gadgets to help in the construction of a home, or even printing entire sections of the house using a modified 3D-printer to print cement layer by layer to produce a building.
One country which has taken to this new method of construction is the Netherlands. A designer has printed an entire house using a giant mechanical arm with a nozzle, to print concrete to produce sections of the house. This type of technology has the benefit of speed, cost and environmental benefits.
The house takes about 5 days’ worth of printing to produce all the parts for the house. This can be then transported and put together at the location where the house is desired.
With the issue of affordable housing growing as a concern for the public following the 2008 financial crash, any methods of producing affordable homes to people are welcomed. By adopting this technology of printing and automation we could soon be at a point where we can address this housing crisis once and for all.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the world of 3D-Printing is expanding into all areas of our lives, offering us unique and bespoke solutions to life’s problems. The uplifting side to this kind of technology is the community behind it, with more and more printers getting into people’s hands, the sharing of designs and schematics are everywhere. The above example with the Parkinson’s pill bottle has been shared for free online so anyone with access to a 3D-Printer can produce one. This type of community support is vital in improving the lives of everyone within the society.