Company: MedPage Today/Role: (Science and Tech Blog 2013) Article Writer [link]
3D Printers: A New Door Opens
If you enjoy watching "The Big Bang Theory" (TBBT), chances are that you are currently up-to-date on the technologies as of late. If you have not seen the show, I will try my best to keep you young and hip by explaining the general themes of the show in one sentence. And if you like the show, you'll enjoy the recap!
TBBT is a CBS sitcom about scientists in their late 20's which usually incorporates fun, geeky topics such as: Siri (who comes with your iPhone4), the Doppler Effect, Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, Pavlov's Dog and Schrodinger's Cat, Comic-Con, Lord of the Rings, Stephen Hawking, and unprecedented hatred toward Will Wheaton for some reason.
Okay, I know -- not much of an impressive sentence being that it was pretty much a list. But despite my brief silliness, the show can actually introduce to us some worthy facts and inventions. Many times, the show even rolls out the red carpet for some real-life technologies that can change our lives, such as one featured on a more recent episode regarding the 3D printer.
I have known about the 3D printer for a couple of months now because of my brother. He is an aeronautical engineer in California, and he and a few of his buddies decided to all chip in and purchase a 3D printer about 3 months ago. It was not something that many people knew about at the time, but as one of my brother's friends mentioned soon after the episode's airing, "Once it hits 'The Big Bang Theory,' you know it's gone mainstream." This seems to be the running joke of other real-life scientists as well, and because of how much notoriety the 3D printer has gotten in such a short amount of time, the assumption sure seems to be legitimate.
Fascinated with his new machine (and also because it was a sweetheart move), my big brother Eric decided to 3D print my favorite animal for me as a holiday gift -- an elephant, in three different colors and sizes! As a person who appreciates art, I was impressed with the shininess and small detail in the objects that began as nothing but photopolymer resin. My brother has also used his printer to make figurines, miniature capsules with rotating panels, and various other figurines with turning gears.
According to "An Overview of 3D Printing" on 3dprinter.net, the process begins with a digital file and 3D modeling program (or it can also work by taking a 3D image of an object and scanning it in). The software then slices the design into hundreds or thousands of horizontal layers. The 3D printer reads this file and then it proceeds to create each layer exactly as specified. As layers blend together, there is hardly any hint of layering visible, and the final result is one three-dimensional object. This process can take many hours, depending on the size of your object.
If you have ever looked closely at a digital photograph, you can see the single pixels that create a whole image. According to Eric, the layers in this process work in a similar way. He explains, "In a way it's like a photo, in that it's a 3D photo model. That model is printed one layer at a time, rather than just one layer in total for a regular printer."
Even Staples is coming out with a 3D printer that follows a similar process, using paper.
Howard Wolowitz (a character on TBBT) explains in the recent episode that these devices are "an engineer's dream" because a you can literally replicate any object you want. But he also raises a valid point: By using 3D printers, Americans can reclaim the manufacturing process and have the ability to take jobs back from sweatshops in China.
President Obama had a similar view as stated in his State of the Union address last Tuesday night. He presented a plan to put $30 million into the new "National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute," which will be located in Youngstown, Ohio. Similar to Wolowitz, Obama explained during his speech: "This institute will help make sure that the manufacturing jobs of tomorrow take root not in places like China or India, but right here in the United States of America. That's how we'll put more people back to work and build an economy that lasts."
Not only does this innovation have potential in the engineering fields, it also has implications for the medical field as well. According to an article from The Blaze, 3D printing has already had success in the creation of prosthetics and bones, and has now, for the first time ever, created its first 3D-printed human embryonic stem cells -- which could save the lives of burn victims.
Even though the 3D printer is a fairly new apparatus, we have taken our knowledge and began running with the possibilities. What if this new innovation could pioneer progress in the medical and engineering fields and change the world as we know it? What could come of life if we are soon able to create 3D printed organs, for example?