3D printing is also known as additive manufacturing. It is a process of creating three-dimensional solid objects by giving them any virtual shape with the help of additive process. In additive process, successive layers of materials are placed in different shapes. This process depends on digital technology to be executed. 3D printing is completely different from traditional machining processes as it does not involve removing metals by cutting or drilling. This technology is used in creating jewelry, automotive, education geographic information system, and civil engineering and so on. This technology basically works on prototyping and distributed manufacturing.
As additive manufacturing is involved in 3D printing, the objects manufactured by 3D printing can be used anywhere without any problem. The product can be used throughout the product life cycle at any stage say from pre-production to full-scale production and even post-production.
Additive manufacturing works on the blueprints designed with the help of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and takes successive guidelines from the design to print.
Many products can be designed with the help of 3D printer. Let us discuss few of them.
Guitar
Since its inception, guitar has been manufactured using valuable wood. So the price of the guitar depends on the quality of the wood used to manufacture it. Few days ago, plastic was also tried to replace wood as the material to manufacture guitar. However, the manufacturing process did never change for whatever material being used. The manufacturing process is subtractive always are it is necessary to remove unwanted material to obtain the correct shape and it of course results in loss of material used to manufacture a guitar.
As 3D printing is additive, it requires addition of materials layer by layer to reach the final shape. Even it is possible to make acoustic guitars with this process. It also takes less time to be manufactured as it completely depends on a computer design.
Camera Lenses
Camera lenses are pretty expensive now and hence, these are not easily affordable by a large group of people. Unexpectedly, 3D printing is quite capable of manufacturing camera lenses. Though it is foolish to expect the quality of traditional camera lenses, you can expect cheap lenses manufactured with the help of 3D printing.
Food
NASA has taken the initiative to manufacture food with the help of 3D printing as it would be helpful during long space voyages. The process of preparing food with the help of 3D printing is same as manufacturing other products. It requires substitution of plastic with living cells and develops that into muscle cells by adding layer by layer.
Art
3D printing is considered to be one of the finest ways to create beautiful solid arts. It is impossible to find imperfections in the art created with the help of 3D printing as the designing part is done through a computer program.
Body Parts
3D printing has developed to produce human body parts even. The first ever body part to be printed was a human liver tissue and it was capable of functioning the way a natural liver tissue functions. So this is a huge aspect in technology if we will be able to create more human organs through 3D printing.
