Shulou(Shulou.com)05/31 Report--

If you've never heard of additive manufacturing, you're more likely to hear the more colloquial term for the same thing: 3D printing. What many people don't realize is that this relatively new technology goes far beyond the use of pedestrians, such as making keychains and fawning on vulgarity. With the rapid development of this concept in factories and basements, people are now making molds for moving parts and tools, medical equipment and a variety of other items. As we all know, the concept of every day is more and more shocking to the industry. Let's take a look at 3D printing-these increasingly easy-to-use devices are being made.

How 3D printing works

This concept, often referred to as 3D printing, has earned the name "add manufacturing" because it is a unique manufacturing process that involves creating solid objects in which materials are added rather than removed. The traditional manufacture of a single solid object usually involves the removal of materials; it is thought to be formed by carving wood, bonding plastic or files and welding metal. During the 3D printing process of additive manufacturing, a program on a computer that uses CAD to make a digital file transcribes instructions to a desktop device-the "printer"-and adds a separate layer of material in a highly precise and precise manner, resulting in a 3D copy of the digital file. It usually takes 20 to 40 minutes to print a project, but it can take 24 hours. So, for some projects, you may want to print popcorn containers yourself, which is exactly what most 3D printers can do.

How to print 3D

As a new technology, additive manufacturing is only "new" because it has recently entered the field strongly. However, this concept and technology have actually existed for 30 years. This is very similar to the technology of tablets and smartphones, which have been around for a long time before these devices became ubiquitous products in most American homes. After all, it usually takes time to fully develop the technology to be sold to consumers-and to become cheap enough for consumers to afford it. It was not until the open projects and other initiatives of the 2000s helped to further develop this technology that the necessary technologies for 3D printers, such as the lasers involved, were realized.

Who uses a 3D printer?

What makes 3D printing so exciting is that, at least in theory, this type of manufacturing can be used to make almost anything-including functional human organs. Mainly used in automotive, aviation, manufacturing, medical, do-it-yourself and other industries, mainly used in experiments. For example, major manufacturers are using 3D printing for various reasons of cost and time savings.

"the marketing department is the customer. They buy these printers for several reasons. Often, customers can't imagine what the finished product will look like." it's very helpful for them to be able to keep prototypes, "says Scott Cleveland of Impac Systems, a distributor of 3D printers.

This makes sense when considering the simplicity and economy of designing prototypes with plastic rather than any more expensive material actually manufactured by the final product. Because of its pure physical practicality, some companies have also adopted this manufacturing technology.

"the products offered by oil and gas companies are usually very large. If they want to bring the finished product to the fair, it's too heavy," Cleveland said. "Today, many people print out miniature prototypes that can be easily displayed on the table."

However, for a child, the world of home 3D printing has become faster than Lego Castle. By the way, many people print for their children these days. Well, the old Web 2.0 crowdsourcing is mainly responsible for the development of 3D printing. There are many websites where people sell their own products and blueprints for those products, or they just share blueprints in an open source way. Shapeways.com and Thingiverse.com are two such popular websites. Read more about crowdsourcing in crowdsourcing: what it is, why it works, and why it doesn't disappear.)

Oh, people print crazy things.

There is no doubt that the overall concept of 3D printing is a broader trend in the development of self-help movements, which have been going on in basements and studios for decades. Although professionals use 3D printing technology in industrial design, architecture, engineering and so on. The threshold for people to produce homemade products as amateurs can be as low as $400 for some printers. That's the price of a decent mountain bike. In addition, if you use a printer, you may only need to print parts to build your own mountain bike.

Although the mid-market price of 3D printers is about $2000, these devices can still be popular for amateur designers, such as the MarkerBot Replicator 2 shown below.

In addition, data and engineers have no shortage of methods and terminology, as they devote themselves to the learning curve of 3D design; terms such as "polygon reduction" and "ABS plastic" and "PLA plastic" are the norm.

Makerbot printer

Mark Bauer Replicator 2 Makerbot.com

There seems to be no limit to the creativity of 3D printer design, from homemade game parts and iPhone chassis to, uh, nuts and bolts (literally). Here are some amazing examples.

Marcelo specification

Vertdesign.com.au, use these Marcello specifications to make your own glasses.

Cube cube

For $1600 to play this, 17x17x17's Rubik's cube comes from hell in Shapeways.com.

When I browse the virtual channels of these three-dimensional blueprint sharing sites, I can't help but smile.

It is obvious that people are not for the masses but for themselves. A super Mario Mobius belt like this:

Here's another thing that people start doing at home: sex toys. Tom Nardone, the founder of MakerLove.com, a free website that offers custom toy designs, explains the privacy advantages of home-made items that many people find difficult to buy.

3D printing dispute

But with all the feel-good things people print at home, 3D printing is also controversial, because not everyone prints harmless sex toys and hip glasses. On the one hand, many amateurs are making blueprints for patented products-as well as actual printed matter-which infringes on the rights of patent owners. A quick search of many torrent sites known for underground and sometimes file transactions can reveal more and more shared designs for patent projects. Infringement may not be mitigated any time soon, especially now that scanning objects using CT scanning applications makes it so easy to instantly convert 3murd objects into digital files.

But what is more controversial is the ability to print fully functional plastic guns, especially when the United States is battling gun control legislation. From the point of view of most people, the quality of these guns is questionable, but if legislators decide to implement legislation to increase gun control, then they do have problems, because there is little that can be done to prevent the proliferation of home-printed weapons.

The future of three dimensions

As people develop new products for 3D printers everywhere, it is not just the product itself that changes the landscape of things, but concepts that come from practice, such as crowdsourcing, turning to do-it-yourself production. and the pure creativity of applications proposed by amateurs and manufacturers. In fact, 3D printing technology is basically open and accessible, which is not only its greatest benefit, but also one of the main challenges it will face when faced with patent law and other restrictions-not to mention the great potential of manufacturing. But while it is absolutely inconceivable to print your own products just a few years ago instead of buying them in stores, it is increasingly becoming a more realistic choice. Like any breakthrough technology.

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