Printing the Soulution

By Kai Mayeda

Working at home and at the desk, working on a brand-new laptop, with a few strokes of the mouse, and after a few hours the CAD is complete. It is downloaded to a SD card, and placed into the slot in the machine. With the press of a few buttons, the 3D printer begins to work, creating the base of the design, in minutes, and the final prototype is done within a few short hours. Thanks to this process, 3D printing is both faster as well as far more efficient than convection means of manufacturing, according to Mike Bughoffer, an additive manufacturing and edtech solutions advisory consultant. “People are slowly but surely replacing overseas manufacturing with localized 3D printing,” Burghoffer said. Companies and corporations are replacing the long and tedious process of manufacturing with quick, easy, and efficient 3D printing according to a statement by 3D printing company, Stratasys Direct. 3D printing has grown to the point where companies like NASA have taken to using a type of 3D printing using metal to build both the components, and shells of rockets. Drew Hope, manager of NASA’s Game Changing Development Program explained. NASA’s new type of 3D printing rapid analysis and manufacturing propulsion technology (RAMPT) is on the cutting edge of the field. “This technology advancement is significant, as it allows us to produce the most difficult and expensive rocket engine parts for a lower price tag than in the past,” Hope said. NASA is using metallic powder, which is melted by lasers as it exits the nozzle, this is called direct energy deposition, DED, which is a further part of the RAMPT program.

“The printing method injects metal powder into a laserheated pool of molten metal, or melt pool,” William Bryan, an editor for NASA said. “The printhead is attached to a robot and moves in a pattern determined by a computer building one layer at a time. The fabrication method has many advantages, including the ability to produce very large pieces.” Said Bryan Due to the low cost and high speed manufacturing that 3D Printing provides, Burghoffer explained

“There will not be any industry that will not be touched in some way, shape, or form by 3D printing,” Burghoffer said.

3D Printing is spreading to cover every single field of science and technology, and it could soon be everywhere.“ People are slowly but surely replacing overseas manufacturing with localized 3D printing. Right now, I think the biggest industry of 3D printing is Aerospace, Automotive, and whatnot.” Burghoffer. One of the most recent industries to explore by 3D printing in the last decade is the housing market. Companies like EDEN homes are attempting to explore “cleaner, faster, and more sustainable houses.”

According to Patrick Tighe, the CEO of EDEN homes. However there is one downside, according to Burghoffer, The home industry is still growing, and has a few errors as well. “I believe that [house 3D printing] is still about 5 to 7 years away before we have mainstream house building, I mean, there is still house building already happening, and in fact, this is one of the prime spots in the world for it right now, but ultimately it is still 5 to 7 years away because the number one thing holding us back, is not the machine, it is not the hardware, but it is the materials [like filament] ”

Burghoffer said. Some of the industries that are expanding the most as of right now are the dental, and medical industries. Stratysys, one of the leading companies for custom printing, has been expanding upon the dental industry for years, according to their website. Stratasys also states that they are able to take scans from dentists, or orthodontists, and then print out personalized crowns, implants, dentures, etc with more precision than ever before, and faster than the traditional methods. Dental is also the fastest growing industry because of how tedious the traditional process of manufacturing is, and the amount of labor 3D printing takes off of the manufacturing. “Dental is actually the fastest growing aspect of additive manufacturing,” Burghoffer said.

Similar to dental, 3D printing for the medical field relieves the workload of many doctors because 3D printing can create hyper precise builds.

“Medical hospitals are also using these 3D printers to make casts on-site, and they are more comfortable and better for the patient.” Burghoffer said However, 3D printing is still uncommon, within hospitals, and medical sector, especially when compared to the ever growing dental industry. Medicals’ absence of 3D printing is due largely in part because when a patient comes into a hospital with a broken arm, the doctors do not have the time to accurately measure out the patient’s arm, and then spend an agonizingly long amount of time printing out a cast for them. However, the main disadvantage is the materials (filaments) used.

“There’s a limited amount of materials that can be used in 3D printing. Composite devices — or devices that require special, non-printable materials or components — may be difficult or impossible to 3D print without cutting some corners.” Said Kayla Mathews, an IT technology writer.

3D printing is an ever growing industry, which has potential to bring prosperity, but is not without its flaws. In more ways than one, 3D printing is far slower than traditional manufacturing, and we still lack some of the necessary capabilities for 3D printing, according to Burghoffer.

“Disadvantages are all in the user and the decider, so if you really don’t know and understand the machine, you’re at a disadvantage right away. The disadvantages, I guess, would be that it is somewhat slower than traditional manufacturing, and that is not necessarily wrong if you were making an apple-to-apple comparison,” Burfhoffer said.

3D printing is not without flaws, but Burghoffer, and many of his colleagues agree that the cost of improvement of the technology far outweighs the negatives of 3D printing, as it brings with it so many benefits to traditional manufacturing. 3D printing can bring our world into prosperity if done correctly, but if action is not taken immediately, then we may come to regret what could have been.

“I believe that 3D printing is actually one of the key elements of getting us out of poverty and getting people out of poverty, for that matter, so that is where I think it has its biggest impact, so anything that can benefit people that are unfortunate or underprivileged for that matter, that is where I think it is going to impact the most, and we are going to see a lot more of that over the next couple years.” said Burghoffer.

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3D Printing has many applications in health such as Prosthetics and Dental implants. It has also commonly been used as a cast for bone frac tures