3D Scanning and printing

The history of 3D printing

3D printing is a hot topic in the media today, but it has actually been around since the 1980s.

Charles Hull coined the term 3D printing when he invented the first stereolithography machines in the late 1980s. The technology uses a laser to cure liquid resin. It was introduced as a rapid prototyping technology. At the time, computer-aided design was taking off, and those early 3D printers helped designers and engineers innovate faster.

The following decade saw increasing levels of innovation, new technologies, and diverse materials, but the high costs of 3D printers limited their widespread use. In 2005, Adrian Bowyer started the RepRap Project. It was a movement based on the challenge of building a self-replicating machine. In this case, low-cost 3D printers. The first set of parts came from a commercial printing company and were designed to connect to standard hardware items like rods, bearings, and electronics. Parts are released under a GNU open source license that allows people to make changes and improvements that drive innovation. While these printers made it possible to make a 3D printer cheaply, they required technical knowledge and effort.

By 2010, startups began selling 3D printer kits, reducing the technical skills needed to build a home 3D printer. The diversity of low-cost 3D printers and the companies that produce them has skyrocketed. The new desktop printers were faster, bigger and more reliable and many were now being sold as fully assembled prosumer machines. At the same time, industrial-grade additive manufacturing expanded. Larger machines and new technology increased the usefulness of 3D printing in new industries. 3D printed objects can now be made from a wide variety of polymers and other materials such as metal. 3D printing has also become accessible through 3D printing services for individuals and businesses. Users upload their design, choose a material, and pay to have it printed and shipped to their door. And just as the scope of additive manufacturing has expanded, so has the availability of 3D modeling software. Once reserved for industry professionals, 3D design software that is easy to use and less expensive allows users of all ages and walks of life the ability to create 3D digital designs. We are at an interesting intersection. We have an industry sector with exciting technological developments combined with new market options ranging from the industry level to the desktop of an individual. And we have various content creation tools accessible to a record number of users. That means it's the perfect time to dive in and learn about 3D printing.

What is 3D printing? 

Which is also known as additive manufacturing. It's a way of making things. It's a form of digital fabrication that uses computer-controlled tools to make a physical object. Consider an inkjet printer. It's a computer-controlled tool working in two dimensions. It has an ink cartridge moving back and forth depositing ink and a second mechanism that feeds the paper in the opposite direction. These two movements combined produce a two-dimensional image. A 3D printer works in a similar way, but instead of ink, it prints in a physical substance like plastic. And instead of two axes of movement, there are three. In this case, the build platform moves down after each plastic layer is deposited. Layer by layer, the 3D printer creates a 3D object.

 Plastics and metal alloys are the most commonly used materials for 3D printing, but almost anything from concrete to living tissue can be used.

 

How 3D printing works

How do you take an idea and print it in three dimensions?  

It's wonderful to explore how 3D printing works. To do this, it is necessary to follow the four steps necessary to make a digital file a reality with 3D printing.

First, we need a digital design file, and to create one, we need to use 3D modeling software. But what is important to know now is that almost any 3D modeling application can be used to create content for 3D printing.  So let's take a look at a digital file in Fusion 360.

This is the Stanford bunny. It was originally scanned at Stanford University and is a widely used file for testing computer applications. This design is complete and the next step is to export it to an appropriate format for 3D printing. In most computer modeling applications, you'll find the Export option on the File menu. We are going to export to the STL file format. STL files are a common file format for 3D printing. The abbreviation STL has several associated acronyms. Stereolithography, which was the first 3D printing process, as well as the standard tessellation language. STL files contain mesh data. The file describes a collection of faces that make up the design. There are other file formats that can be easily converted to STL or used in specific situations. For example, OBJ, DAE, WRL, X3D, 3MF, AMF, and so on. 

The first two steps are done and it's time to move on to the CAM software. CAM stands for Computer Aided Manufacturing. CAM software converts geometric design data and generates instructions for computer-controlled machines to follow. For 3D printing, CAM software is sometimes called a slicer. If you are using a commercial 3D printing service, skip this step, they will take care of it for you. Regardless of what type of 3D printing process you use, the underlying process is similar and this is how it works. This is the Cura slicer. Position, scale or rotate your part. Choose your print parameters like layer height and whether or not you want to use support. Cut the file to turn it into instructions for the 3D printer. Preview the print and scroll through the layers. The lines show the path that the 3D printer will follow. Save the file and then transfer it to a 3D printer to complete the loop. 3D printers use different technologies to build these 2D slices on top of each other to create a 3D print. Some extrude plastic through a heated nozzle, others use a laser to cure the resin, and others work like an inkjet printer, spraying droplets of liquid plastic. The finished print is a physical copy of your digital file.

What you can do with 3D printing

One of the most common questions about 3D printing is what can I do? End uses range from prototypes to end products of all kinds. We will now explore some of the most common uses of 3D printing.

3D printing originated as a prototyping technology. A prototype is a preliminary physical representation of a design in progress. Traditional techniques include clay sculpting, metal machining, casting and more. And while these are helpful, they can be time consuming. 3D printing is faster and is often called rapid prototyping. With rapid prototyping, an inventor, designer, or engineer can make a physical copy of their design in hours instead of weeks or days. This speeds up the innovation process, especially in product design. 3D printing is useful in any industry that already uses a digital workflow. Whether you're a digital artist creating an animated 3D character or an architect designing a skyscraper, it only takes a few steps to translate that existing digital asset into a physical 3D print. But 3D printing is useful for more than just prototypes. You can also create finished products. The rise of 3D printed products is due to three main factors. First of all, there is a growing range of materials – flexible plastics, ceramics, metals – that are great for consumer products. Second, 3D printing has unique economies of scale, especially when compared to traditional manufacturing techniques like injection molding.

The economies of scale for 3D printing are different. 3D printing has low initial tooling costs, but each printed part is more expensive to make, with the first part costing the same as the 10th or 100th. Finally, additive manufacturing allows for complexity and unique geometries. The products we use every day have been designed to take advantage of a variety of manufacturing processes. If you know what to look for, you can see how manufacturing affects the appearance of everyday objects: casting, molding, forming, machining, bonding, and more. When designers and engineers take advantage of the special properties of additive manufacturing, a world of possibilities opens up. Designing outside the constraints of traditional manufacturing creates parts with a unique look and function that are difficult to duplicate by other methods.

So what can be done with 3D printing? Prototypes and real products. If you can design it, you can 3D print it.