Read more: “3D printing: Second industrial revolution is under way“
Though a simple concept, 3D printing has blossomed into a pursuit that spans myriad fields, from giant crane-mounted nozzles oozing concrete, to printers for the kitchen that squeeze molten chocolate into shapely treats.
Prices for the rigs can be in the stratosphere, but the cheapest models have come down to around $1000, making 3D printing accessible to hobbyists. There are also agencies like who will print your designs for you.
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Here New Scientist provides a glimpse of 3D printing’s scope.
LARGEST 3D-PRINTED ITEM (PLANNED): Human dwellings. of California hopes to precisely deposit cement like a baker ices a cake, to gradually build up the structure of houses – and even whole apartment blocks.
CHEAPEST 3D PRINTER: Firms like in the US are bringing the technology to the home with a $1300 flatpack 3D printer that squirts out the layers of an object using a hard-setting liquid thermoplastic under computer control.
FIRST SELF-ASSEMBLING 3D PRINTER: The developed by the University of Bath in the UK can make many of its own components. People can download the blueprints and build their own. Once functional, the printers can build parts of themselves.
TASTIEST 3D PRINTED FOOD: Molten chocolate lends itself perfectly to – and allows some cool confections to be concocted, say inventors at the University of Exeter, UK.
SMALLEST 3D PRINTER: For making diminutive parts like jewellery, a team at the Technical University of Vienna in Austria has constructed weighing just 1.5 kilograms.
PRINT YOUR LIVER: The technique is even being explored for the creation of human bones and organs. Using cells as the “ink”, of Wake Forest University in North Carolina, among others, one day hopes to be able to print whole organs from scratch.
