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What is commonly made using a 3D printer?

What object is most made using a 3D printer? #3dprinter #engineer #technology

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Victoria’s Answer

Hi Isabel,


There are so many things being made with 3D printers and the list grows everyday!


I really like going to Wikipedia to start learning about a topic - like 3D printing for instance. There is a super article on 3D Printing at "wiki". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing


3D printing is actually ancient - if you look at the lost wax technique in art it is essentially 3D printing.


Also, the original printing presses and woodblock printing are examples of 1D printing and made it possible to mass produce books so that new ideas could be sent around the world. These ideas inspired so many different thinkers, the American Revolution, and even newspapers so people could communicate!


What is new about 3D + printing is that now we take electronic data/scans of original objects (possibly fragile or very old objects ) and recreate the object with a computer by representing the electronic measurements with material. You can print a unique part if something breaks, you can reconstruct an ancient object to study it, and you can make toys or art pieces. So many possibilities.


You ask an excellent question: here is a really great link to a site with 101 ideas of 3 D printable objects:

http://www.instructables.com/id/101-useful-practical-functional-3d-prints/ and this amazing article shows even more very surprising 3D printed objects: https://www.networkworld.com/article/3138513/hardware/10-of-the-coolest-things-made-on-3d-printers.html#slide11


3D printing is very versatile and is only beginning to help us in all areas of study and living. There are many exciting applications in the arts, biomedical, engineering, and scientific areas. One exciting area that combines all these disciplines is 3D printing prosthetics for children who need an actual hand. check out: http://enablingthefuture.org/ . The site gives you instructions on how to volunteer and print assistive devices: http://enablingthefuture.org/upper-limb-prosthetics/


Here is also an article about ISU's College of Design, where they use 3D printers as part of the curriculum:

https://www.design.iastate.edu/digital-technologies/output-center/output-information/3d-printing/

Victoria recommends the following next steps:

Check out these links above and see if there are any 3D printers in your area maybe at the library or your school.
There are also some great YouTube instructional videos that show you how to 3D print. Keep your eyes open for opportunities in this area including future career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math.
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philippe’s Answer

Hi Isabel,

You first have to consider 3D printer is a general kind of device. It comes in many flavors. From the general plastic object printer using PLA filament that you can use to:
- create prototypes for DIY or work
- create replacement parts/adapted parts for special need (I for instance created spaces for my home automation sensors so they would fit my door gap). I fixed some broken toys for my child instead of trashing them.
These printers are generally cheap and don't offer a good speed of printing (can be up for hours printing with the risk of failing in the middle and start over). Printing resolution is not very high so details won't be visible as they are with resin printers.

Regarding the (professional) resin printers using UV lasers to fix resin and allow very detailed printing, here you are going to be limited in size of object to print, and have to spend a lot of money in the printer but also in the resin itself. Resin is also not so healthy compound to manipulate, so you have to wear protections for eyes and hands and cure properly the printed object before using it.

Then come the next level: metal printers, able to manufacture parts that can go into million dollar racing car engines.
And finally, the printers capable to print a house.

You can google these different printers to see what they can achieve. I can also recommend you to go to Youtube channels specialized in DIY and 3d printing. They are more or less technical, so find one that either goes more on the technical side, or more on the results side.
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David’s Answer

For mechanical engineering todays 3d printers are a great tool. They allow quick prototyping and mock-ups to quickly review complex interactions and "stack up" fitting. This allows for quick iterations of designs without having to wait for parts to be fabricated.

Previously these same parts were cut via CNC in high density plastics, which while faster than a full metal build was still slower and usually limited by CNC operator and machine availablility.

A sub-$1000 dollar printer can make prototype parts that previously a $100,000 CNC machine.
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Anand’s Answer

Hello

you could refer to this page for more info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applications_of_3D_printing

Currently, it used to make moulds / models. However, as technology improves, we could see 3D printers deployed in real world applications.

We see it heavily used in Jewellery making, Product Designs, by Architects, in Medical Industry,

It is a very exciting field these days
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